512 HISTORY OF THE 



Their food consists chiefly of fruits and berries (the juniper 

 and mountain ash berries the favorite). Insects, in their season, 

 help to make up their bill of fare, and they catch them readily 

 upon the wing. 



They are not naturally wild or timid; tame easily, and make 

 handsome cage birds. I can find no mention of a song, by 

 writers that have met with them in their summer homes; but 

 they are so friendly and attentive to each other, at all times, 

 that I think they must, in the early mating season, express their 

 love and joy in song; probably, like their cousins, the Cedar 

 Waxwings, in so low and lisping a manner as not to be heard 

 over twenty yards away. 



Their nests are said to be placed on the branches of trees, 

 from six to about twenty feet from the ground; a rather bulky, 

 compact structure, composed of twigs, strippings of bark, root- 

 lets, leaves, stems of grasses, and sometimes lichens and mosses, 

 and lined with fine rootlets, grasses and feathers. Eggs three 

 to five. They vary in dimensions, as given by American writ- 

 ers, from .90x. 65 to l.OOx.67; bluish white to purplish gray, 

 spotted with lilac and dark brown to black, thickly set about the 

 larger end; in form, oval. A set of four eggs, in my brother's 

 collection, taken in Labrador, June 18th, 1885, are: .98x.70, 

 .99x.70, 1.05X.69, 1.06x.70.* (Average of European eggs: 

 l.OOx.69 to .70.) 



Ampelis cedrorum (Vieill.). 



CEDAR WAXWING. 

 PLATE XXX. 



Resident; irregular; some years common, others rare. Begin 

 laying about the last of June. 



B. 233. R. 151. C. 1G7. G. 74, 260. U. 619. 



Habitat. The whole of temperate North America; south in 

 winter to Guatemala and the West Indies. Breeds nearly 

 throughout its summer range. 



Sp. Char. Crest moderate. General color soft viuaceous cinnamon, deep- 

 est anteriorly, more olivaceous on bacli, scapulars and wing coverts; passing 



* The average differences as given are so great, that I am inclined to thinli there must be 

 some mistake in the identification, and that the smaller sets may prove to be the eggs of A. 

 cedrorum. 



