90 BULLETIN 10 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL RIUSEUM 



generally in small companies, flying out from a liigli perch, oftenest, 

 perhaps, over a river or pond, to snatch up insects gathered in large 

 assemblies. The birds appear as adept as the true flycatchers and, 

 like them, return as a rule to a perch after each capture. William 

 Brewster (1906) speaks of their turning their flycatching skill to the 

 snapping up of tiny snowflakes floating in the air. He says : "Wlien 

 no insects Jire on wing Cedarbirds sometimes practise the art of fly- 

 catching on inanimate but rapidly moving objects. Thus on March 1, 

 1866, 1 saw the members of a large flock engaged in chasing and cap- 

 turing whirling snowflakes^ at which they launched out in quick suc- 

 cession from the upper branches of a tall elm. * * * Probably the 

 birds were only amusing themselves, although they may also have en- 

 joyed slaking their thirst with snow fresh from the clouds." 



At first the young are fed on insects, presumably by regurgitation, 

 but early in their lives, within a few days after hatching, berries are 

 added to their diet. The adults bring the berries to the nest several 

 at a time, stored temporarily in the gullet. W. E. Shore, of Toronto, 

 Ontario, writes to Mr. Bent an amusing account of their delivery: 

 "Having set up the camera at a nest in an apple tree, I retired to the 

 blind to w^ait and was surprised to find that within 15 minutes both 

 parents were back in the tree, but apparently empty-mouthed. How- 

 ever, one bird hopped to the side of the nest, and the two w'ell-feathered 

 young shot their heads up and opened their bills, action which I con- 

 sidered overly optimistic. But they apparently knew their business, 

 for, as I watched through the binoculars, tlie adult gave a slight jerk 

 of his head, and to my surprise a ripe, unbroken cherry appeared in 

 his bill. This was promptly dropped into the bill of a young one, and 

 again the head jerked, and another cherry appeared. This happened 

 seven times ; then the bird flew off, and the mate came to the nest and 

 went through the same performance. The whole thing so resembled a 

 magician producing cards out of thin air with the time-honored twist 

 of the wrist and jerk of the hand that I could almost hear the word 

 'Presto' emanating from the solemn-faced birds as they continued to 

 produce cherry after cherry." 



Howard L. Cogswell says in his notes from Pasadena, Calif.: 

 "This species is often very abundant throughout the cities in winter, 

 especially in sections where camphortrees and peppertrees are planted. 

 Of late years the peppertrees, long a recognized favorite for berry-eat- 

 ing birds, have been yielding poorer and poorer crops in the Los An- 

 geles area. As a consequence, in the Pasadena area at least, the wax- 

 wings and their often-present associate, the robin, are now to be seen 

 chiefly in the camphortrees used extensively to line the streets of resi- 

 dential districts. From their arrival in numbers in November until 

 about February 1, the small cherrylike drupe of this tree seems to be 

 the chief food of the waxwings. Then, when these are gone, they turn 



