Cedar- Wax wing 427 



C. H. Smith of Coventry, in the winter of 1907-8, saw a flock from 

 which he shot one. Henderson reports one taken by Bragg at Boulder 

 July 4th, 1904, now in the State Collection at Denver. These con- 

 stitute the only records which I have been able to find. 



Habits. — The Cedar- Waxwing frequents woods, orchards 

 and groves, going in flocks, all the year round except 

 in the breeding season, and like the Bohemian Waxwing 

 is a great wanderer. The notes are soft and subdued 

 and hardly noticeable. The food consists chiefly of berries, 

 especially those of the cedar, as well as insects. The}'' 

 are generally regarded with alarm by the fruit-grower 

 in consequence of their ravages on orchards, but they 

 also destroy immense numbers of injurious insects and 

 are probably more beneficial than harmful. The nest 

 is a deep bulky structure of twigs and grasses hned with 

 leaves or fine rootlets, and placed in thick bush or low 

 tree ; the eggs, usually four in number, are blueish to 

 purphsh-grey, spotted with brown or black ; they measure 

 •82 X -60. 



The use and meaning of the characteristic red appen- 

 dages are quite unknown ; they vary considerably in 

 development and may be found even in young birds, 

 though as a rule best developed in adult males. 



Family LANIIDiE. 

 A large and cosmopolitan family chiefly developed 

 in the Old World, and only represented in the Western 

 Hemisphere by two species of the genus Lanius ; the 

 characters of which may therefore be used to diagnose 

 the American members of the family. 



Genus LANIUS. 



Bill robust, compressed, strongly hooked and toothed ; nostrils 



basal, nearly round, partly at any rate concealed by bristles ; rictal 



bristles numerous ; wing rather short and rounded, of ten primaries, 



the outer (tenth) about half the length of the ninth, the sixth, seventh , 



