^60 LAND BIRDS 



Nest: Rather bulky ; composed of bark, leaves, roots, twigs, weeds, 

 paper, etc. ; lined with finer grasses, hair, and wool ; placed usually 

 in cedar bashes or orchard trees, from 4 to 18 feet from the ground. 



Eggs: 3 to 5 ; bluish or light slate-color, tinged with olive, spotted with 

 brown and dark purple. Size 0.84 X 0.61 



The Cedar Waxwiug has kept his individuality so 

 unchanged in the transit from east to west that the 

 California ornithologists have not been able to make a 

 Western subspecies of him. In the coniferous forests of 

 the Sierra Nevada they are the same handsome, gentle 

 birds that we have known and loved in other parts of 

 the United States. When other birds are absorbed with 

 the cares of nest building, the Waxvvings are leisurely 

 flying in small companies low over the level tree-tops, 

 or sunning themselves on the highest twig of the pines. 

 After most of the forest nestlings are out of their cradles 

 and foraging for themselves, the quiet Waxwings look 

 about for a nesting site and commence building. Only 

 the goldfinches are late enough to keep them company. 

 Both male and female Waxwings bring material and 

 fashion the nest, though the former does most of the 

 work. It is a coarse affair to be the home of such 

 dainty, satiny birds, and is often in or near a tree bear- 

 ing berries or small fruit. Both sexes share in the 

 incubation also, brooding by turns of from thirty to sixty 

 minutes at a time ; but it is the mother who sleeps there 

 at night while the father perches in the same tree. 



When large enough to leave the nest, the young 

 Waxwings look like their parents, but lack the red waxy 

 tips on the wing-feathers. They are very confiding little 

 creatures, and I have repeatedly called them to me in 



