THE CEDAR WAXWING. 



eyes upon him — those marvelous melting browns, those shifting saffrons and 

 Ouaker drabs, those red sealing-wax tips on the wing-quills (he is canning 

 cherries, you see, and co v| mes provided). Feast your eyes, I say, 



and carry the vision to M the table with / you, and a few less cher- 

 ries. Or if there are f^ not enough for I you both, draw a decent 

 breadth of mosquito- ll netting over I the tree, and absolve 



)• o u r soul 

 of murder- 

 ous intent. 

 Remember, 

 too, if you 

 require self- 

 j u s t i li ca- 

 tion, thai 

 lier in the seasi n he 

 devoured an enormous 

 quantity of canker 

 worms and other simi- 

 lar pests, so that he has 

 a clear right to a share 

 in the fruit of his labors. 

 The Cedar -bird being 

 so singularly endowed 

 with the gift of beauty, is 

 denied the gift ofsong. He 

 is the must nearly voiceless 

 of any of the American 



MR. C. II. MORRIS FURNISHED THE RAGS AND THE CEDAR-BIRD OscillCS, PUS SOfe llOte be- 



ing a high-pitched, sibilant 

 squeak. Indeed, so high-pitched is this extraordinary note, that I find several 

 of my friends cannot hear it at all, even when the Waxwings are squeaking all 

 about them. It is an almost uncanny spectacle, that of a company of Waxwings 

 sitting aloft in some leafless tree early in spring, erect, immovable, like soldiers 

 on dress parade, but complaining to each other in that faint, penetrating mono- 

 tone. It is as tho you had come upon a company of the Immortals, high-re- 

 moved, conversing of matters too recondite for human ken. and who survey you 

 the while with Olympian disdain. You steal away from the foot of the tree 

 with a chastened sense of having encountered something not quite under- 

 standable. 



The dilatorv habits of these birds are well shown in their nesting, which 

 they put off until late June or July for no apparent reason. They build a thick- 

 walled, well-set structure of weed-stalks, roots, grass, etc., oftenest in orchard 





,■,'/,:,.</,• 



1'AK'l N ! . U S 1 1 1 1 ■ Ml' \IK 



