such vigor that it passed the House in spite of all the arguments that could be 

 advanced regarding the usefulness of the birds. In the Senate, however, these 

 arguments were dropped, and the senators were shown mounted specimens of the 

 bird. That was enough; its beauty conquered and the bill was defeated. 



The Cedar Waxwing is found throughout the wooded portions of North 

 America, from the fur countries southward, and winters in most of the United 

 States and southward to Cuba, Mexico and Panama. It is accidental in the 

 Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica and Great Britain. It breeds from British Colum- 

 bia to northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec and south to southern r)regon 

 and North Carolina. 



Perhaps in the white days of winter you may see a little flock sitting upright 

 upon some leafless tree, calling softly to each other in their high-pitched, lisping, 

 sibilant monotone. As Mr. Dawson says: "It is as though you had come upon a 

 company of the Immortals, high-removed, conversing of matters too recondite 

 for human ken, and who survey you the while with Olympian disdain." 



During the nesting-season they become silent indeed, but several competent 

 ornithologists have heard a low song. Judging from my own experience, how- 

 ever, this song must be about as rare as that of the dying Swan- — which, by the 

 way, is not a myth. Mr. Brewster has heard our Waxwing give a succession of 

 loud, full notes, not unlike those uttered by Tree Swallows in spring. On several 

 occasions they have been given by a bird circling high in air, as if in song flight, 

 but he has heard similar cries uttered by wounded birds of this species, and 

 suspects that these calls are merely a succession of alarm notes. 



The Cedar Waxwing breeds very late, raising its young in July or August, 

 when wild cherries and blueberries furnish them an abundant supply of food. 

 In New England, the earliest nests sometimes have eggs by the second week in 

 June. The breeding-season is at its height by the last of July. Sometimes a pair 

 raises two broods, and a few have young in the nest in September, The nesting- 

 site varies greatly. The nest is often located on some tree from which the wax- 

 wing gets its food, although I have never seen its nest in a cherry tree. The 

 apple is commonly chosen, also the Virginia juniper or red cedar. Sometimes, 

 in settled regions, the nest is placed on a low limb or a hedge not more than five 

 or si.x feet from the ground, sometimes in tall elms or maples, more rarely in the 

 top of a birch or some pasture tree. Both male and female engage in nest-build- 

 ing; the male often brings nesting-material, while the female fashions it into 

 shape. In the forested regions of the North, the nests are found in spruce or 

 hackmatack trees in open swamps. The nest varies as much in material and 

 construction as in situation. In the South it is comparatively small and compact, 

 built mainly of small twigs, grass culms, weed-stalks and leaves, and lined with 

 fine grasses and grass roots. In the farming regions of the North the nest is often 

 a bulky structure, composed largely of the stems of weeds and grasses, a few 

 twigs, grape-vine, cedar or hemlock bark, and feathers, hair or wool ; some- 

 times including rags, string, lint, paper or yarn in its construction. 



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