558 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. . 



many to be killed at a single shot, all favor their use in this way, but thanks 

 to the growing public sentiment against this barbarity, and especially 

 to the persistent and energetic work of the Audubon societies, the evil 

 is now nearly stamped out. 



Although the Cedar-bird has nothing which can be called a song it is 

 far from a silent bird. It has a peculiar, penetrating, sibilant lisp which 

 can be heard several hundred yards and is often uttered rapidly and in 

 unison just before the flock takes flight. While feeding on cherries, or 

 while moving from place to place, individuals continually utter this lisping 

 cry, but neither so loudly nor continuously. 



During the winter time the birds feed very largely on juniper berries 

 or cedar-berries (whence the name Cedar-bird), as well as on the berries 

 of the mountain ash, haw, sumac, bittersweet, choke-berry, black alder (Ilex 

 verticillata) , smilax, and particularly on the sugar-berry or hack-l)erry 

 (Celtis). Undoubtedly the Cedar-bird is one of nature's 

 most active agents in the distribution of the seeds of many 

 of these beautiful shrubs and trees. 



The nest is composed largely of grasses, weed-stalks, 

 leaves, roots and similar fibrous materials, often in great 

 variety, and is frequently quite bulky. It is placed at 

 heights varying from six to forty feet, in trees of various 

 kinds, most often in orchard trees or in evergreens, the 

 red cedar itself being a favorite nesting tree. The eggs 

 are peculiarly colored and marked, being bluish or purplish ^.^ 



white, spotted and dotted rather sharply with dark brown, rsiii of ce.hir-bini. 

 purplish and black. This is one of the few species whose 

 eggs can be identified usually at a glance. They average .87 by .61 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Top of head with a long, pointed crest; wings with or without red, wax-Hke tips, but 

 always without white markings; tail tipped with bright yellow. 



Adult (sexes alike) : Forehead, lores, and stripe behind eye, velvet black, usually 

 bordered above with a narrow white line ; top of head (including crest) , back and scapulars, 

 an indescribable soft olive-brown or olive-gray, sometimes with a distinct rufous tinge 

 on cheeks and sides of neck, and shading imperceptibly into clear ash-gray on rump and 

 upper tail-coverts; a narrow white line backward from base of lower mandible, and a white 

 spot on lower eye-lid; chin deep black, shading through dusky-olive on the throat into 

 clear olive or olive-gray on breast and sides, and this into olive-yellow or even clear yellow 

 on flanks and belly; under tail-coverts pure white or buffy white; wings ash-gray or slate 

 gray, blackening toward the tips; the secondaries always without white markings but 

 often with red, sealing-wax -like tips; tail square or a little emarginate, ash-gray at base, 

 shading into deep black near the end and abruptly tipped with bright yellow. In very 

 higli plumage a row of red wax-like tips is occasionally found on the tail, but these are never 

 as large as those on the wings. Their presence on the latter seems to be independent of 

 sex or season, but is merely a question of age — or perhaps of strength and vigor. Young 

 birds lack them altogether, but many breeding individuals are also without tliem. Young: 

 Similar to adult in the crest and the yellow-tipped tail, but colors much duller and the under 

 parts streaked with dusky or brownish and white. 



Length 6.70 to 7.50 inches; wing 3.G0 to 3.90; tail 2.30 to 2.G0. 



