WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 261 



the wood, when they would answer every call, coming 

 nearer and nearer until they lit on a branch of hawthorn 

 berries I was carrying and began to eat as I walked 

 along. I know of no other birds who will endure so 

 much meddling with their domestic affairs with no show 

 of resentment or deserting the nest. They will suffer all 

 sorts of indignities and disturbance of nesting site and 

 environment without seeming to be disconcerted. This 

 is due to the remarkable devotion of the adults to their 

 brood, which induces them to care for the young at what- 

 ever cost to themselves. Most of the feeding is done 

 by regurgitation, and often the gular pouches of the 

 adult will be noticeably swollen as he comes to the nest 

 with it full of food, which he transfers to the throats of 

 his brood. It is less easy to tell what that food is by 

 looking at the crops of young birds fed by regurgitation 

 than of those fed with the raw food, yet it is often quite 

 possible to do so with unfeathered nestlings. In the 

 case of the young Waxwings the remains of insects were 

 plainly visible through the semi-transparent skin ; and 

 about as soon as the feathers appeared the regurgitation 

 was supplanted by feeding at first hand with large in- 

 sects. The food of the adults consists of insects, seeds, 

 berries of trees, and any small fruits except strawberries. 



The Cedar Waxwings have no varied song, but they 

 liave a soft, conversational, whistling chirp and a plain- 

 tive call-note like " pee-eet, pee-cet " which they keep 

 up most of the time. 



They occur in California during the fall, winter, and 

 spring, departing in June for tlicir northern breeding 

 grounds. 



