116 THE CEDAR BIRD. 



sible, and all having precisely the same motion, and alight- 

 ing so similarly that the attitude of one is the attitude of 

 the whole flock. Few things in the movement of bird-life 

 are more interesting than this perfect uniformity of motion 

 of a group of Cedar Birds {Ampelis cedroruni)^ as if one life 

 directed them all. How spirited and graceful they are! Some 

 six or seven inches long, slender, beautifully crested, the plum- 

 age remarkably blended and glossy; in color, a rich brown, 

 becoming reddish on the breast and about the head; chin, 

 forehead, and band across the eyes to occiput, black, partly 

 margined with a line of white; belly, yellow; under tail 

 coverts, white; wings, rump and tail, bluish-drab; darker 

 toward the end of the tail, which is margined with bright 

 sulphur-yellow; secondaries, generally tipped with flattened 

 appendages, the color of bright-red sealing-wax. The 

 female is similar to the m.ale, and the young differ but little. 

 Occasionally an old male is found with red, wax-like tips 

 on the tail feathers, or even on some of the feathers of the 

 crest. 



As I watch the flock in the bright, warm sunshine they 

 become more careless in attitude and motion, and presently 

 become fly-catchers, making little circuits after their prey, 

 and seeming rather drowsy, for them. This fly-catching is 

 quite indicative of their habit in part; for despite their 

 frugivorous propensities, they destroy no small number of 

 insects at certain seasons of the year, especially the larvae 

 of the Canker Worm. 



Watch these same Cedar Birds in some secluded dell 

 affording a rocky stream — watch them in the delicious 

 quiet and ruddy glow of the evening. How gracefully 

 they alight on the larger rocks rising above the surface of 

 the water; and, standing almost straight, with crests erect, 

 how noiselessly they describe their elegant circles in the 



