BOHEMIAN WAXWING 73 



amusing to see the robins resent the presence of the Bohemians feeding 

 upon the berries; the former would frequently make a dash at them 

 and try to drive them away, but this was futile, as the latter simply 

 shifted their positions and resumed feeding. 



"On another occasion we saw a large flock that numbered nearly 2,000 

 birds, the majority occupying the tops of several small trees. Near 

 the base of one of the trees, grew a tall, decorative rosebush, and as 

 the bush had many hips, numbers of the birds attempted to alight 

 therein to feed, but its branches, being too weak to sustain them, would 

 continually give way, causing a constant commotion; the birds kept 

 fluttering and interfering with one another and dislodging many hips, 

 which fell to the walk beneath, to be eaten by the birds alighting there. 

 The sight of these many birds in active motion reminded one of bees 

 swarming about a hive." 



Bohemian waxwings are seldom seen singly, though one or two may 

 be seen occasionally in a flock of cedar waxwings, with which they seem 

 to be on friendly terms and to have similar habits. Mr. Rathbun 

 mentions in his notes one that he saw entirely alone and a long way from 

 home; while he was crossing the Gulf of Alaska, and was some 20 

 miles offshore, one solitary individual came aboard the ship and 

 perched on one of the stays of the stack for nearly half an hour and then 

 flew ofl? low over the water toward land. 



P. M. Silloway (1903) says of their flight behavior: 



They were continually fluttering upward or outward from the tree-tops, hover- 

 ing in air like kinghirds capturing insects a-wing. Their aerial movements were 

 much like those of swallows over water, as they sailed, fluttered, or hovered with 

 expanded tail, or mounted obliquely upward with rapidly beating wings. Fre- 

 quently a crowded company of them would fly outward from some tree in which 

 they had been sitting, keeping together in undulating flight, veering abruptly 

 upward or downward or sidewise in capricious evolution. 



Voice. — As a vocalist the Bohemian waxwing is no star j)erformer. 

 Mr. Swarth (1922) says of it: 



Under ordinary circumstances the only sound uttered by the waxwing is a 

 sibilant call note much like that of the more familiar cedar bird. While notes of 

 the two species are of the same character, still they are distinguishably different. 

 This difference may, perhaps, be indicated by describing the cedar bird's call 

 as a hiss, the Bohemian waxwiug's call as a buzz. The note of the latter is 

 somewhat coarser; the listener has an impression of hearing a series of very 

 slightly separated notes, rather than of a continuous sound such as the cedar 

 bird utters. 



Mr, Cameron (1908) says that "when flying the birds keep up an 

 incessant twittering, so that high passing flocks are immediately recog- 

 nized by their call of zir-r-r-r — a sort of trill. * * * Xhe weak 

 voice of a single waxwing is inaudible except at very close quarters, 

 but hundreds together produce quite a volume of sound." Ralph 

 Hoffmann (1927) remarks that the note, 'given when the birds wheel 



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