The eggs miinljer llircc to five. ])ak' hluisli, or bluish gray, with more or less 

 of a jnirple tint, tajicring rather suddenly tow.ard the small end, and marked with 

 small distinct roundish spots of blackish or tnnl)er. The large end is marked 

 with various touches and .shades of purple. An egg is laid daily until the set is 

 complete. The male and the female are said to take turns in incubating, and in 

 feeding the young, which hatch after about fourteen days' incubation. 



The migrations and winter movements of the Cedar Wa.xwing are controlled 

 largely by the supply of certain wild licrries in the regions over which they pass. 

 Therefore they may be met with in fall and winter anywhere from the latitude 

 of Maine to that of Georgia, wherever the berries upon which they feed are plen- 

 tiful. In spring, however, there seems to be a rather irregular double migration 

 northward. Mr. Wayne states that they appear in South Carolina in February, 

 and again in the last few days of March. In eastern Massachusetts, a flight 

 comes usually in February and another in May, after which the bird is distrib- 

 uted over New England. The significance of these flights has never been fully 

 explained, but in Massachusetts the earlier flight is supposed to be composed of 

 birds that go far north to breed. When moving long distances, the Cedar Wax- 

 wing flies high, but ordinarily it passes just above the tree-tops. 



The food of the Cedar \\'axwing consists very largely of fruit ; but most of it 

 is wild fruit and of no value to man. 



The Biological Survey finds that 87 per cent of its food for the year is vege- 

 table matter. Wild fruits and seeds compose 74 per cent of this and cultivated 

 cherries only 5 per cent. The animal food consists mainly of insects. When the 

 Waxwings come in spring, they may be seen pecking at the blossoms of fruit 

 trees and scattering the petals broadcast : but when their stomachs have been 

 examined quantities of the insects that infest the blossoms have been found. 

 Thev are fond of leaf-eating bettles, and devour quantities of the Colorado 

 potato beetle and the pernicious elm-leaf beetle, which has proved so destructive 

 to elms recently in the eastern states. Mr. Outram Bangs informed me that the 

 Waxwings entirely cleared his young elms of this pest. Mrs. Mary Treat notes 

 a similar instance. This bird is very fond of the small geometrid caterpillars 

 which strip the foliage from apple trees, elms and other trees, and it destroys 

 enormous quantites of these worms. Professor Forbes estimates that a flock of 

 thirty of these birds will eat 90,000 canker-worms a month — a very moderate 

 estimate, for the appetite of the bird is unlimited. Cedar Waxwings have been 

 known to gorge themselves with early cherries so as to be unable to fly. The 

 young are fed quantities of insects, and, as they grow older, the parents give 

 them fruit. The food is usually regurgitated into the open mouths of the little 

 ones. 



In late summer and early fall, the ^^'axwing imitates a Flycatcher, and, 

 taking its post on some tall tree, usually near a pond or river, launches out over 

 water or meadow in i)ursuit of flying insects. Birds taken at such times have 



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