CEDAR WAXWING 93 



bait of dried raisins and was especially successful wlien he left live 

 birds in the traps as decoys. 



Arthur E. Staebler and Leslie D. Case (1910) note an instance of 

 "community bathing of the Cedar Waxwing," another example of 

 their social behavior. They say : "Between 55 and 60 Waxwings were 

 in a small aspen tree next to a pool of stagnant water in a depression 

 on the beach of Lake Michigan. Some of the birds were bathing in 

 the water while others were sitting quietly or preening themselves 

 in the tree. Periodically one or several of tlie bathing birds would 

 fly up into the tree and almost immediately they would be replaced 

 at the pool by others from the tree. Thus there were always about 

 15 or 20 birds from the flock bathing at any one time." 



Bradford Torrey (1885) gives us this delightfully dainty snap-shot 

 of the cedarbircl: "Taking an evening w^alk, I was stopped by the 

 sight of a pair of cedar-birds on a stone wall. They had chosen a 

 convenient flat stone, and were hopping about upon it, pausing every 

 moment or two to put their little bills together. What a loving ec- 

 stasy possessed them ! Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sounded 

 a faint lisping note, and motioned for another kiss. But there is 

 no setting forth the ineffable grace and sweetness of their chaste 

 behavior." 



Voice. — The cedar waxwing's voice is very high in pitch, something 

 like a hiss with very little tone quality, except when the note is uttered 

 at its highest pitch and given with increased intensity, when it be- 

 comes almost a long, clear whistle. Even then the voice is not loud 

 and does not carry far, but when heard from near at hand it is sharply 

 piercing. Generally we detect an effect of vibration in a prolonged 

 hiss, owing doubtless to the breaking up of the note into many minute 

 parts. The division is so coarse, sometimes, as to give the note a 

 rattling effect, sometimes so fine as to be nearly imperceptible. The 

 variability of this simple sound enables the bird, in our imagination 

 at least, to express different degrees of emotion — content, excitement, 

 or alarm. Thus Helen Granger Whittle (1928), who for 18 months 

 cared for a young cedarbird, whose flight feathers never developed, 

 found that it had a wealth of notes. "Onlj^ one was loud," she says, "a 

 piercing danger note, and even that was sibilant in quality. A modi- 

 fication of this note, softer and reiterated, was a complaining note, 

 his only tiresome vocalization. His 'dinner' note called for food ; he 

 had a bedtime note, and what I called a 'nesting' note." Mrs. Whittle 

 also rei^orts that her bird, which on post-mortem examination proved 

 to be a female, used to sing. "On November 6th," she says, "as his 

 cage stood in a sunny window and I was busy at a little distance, I 

 was delighted and amazed to hear from him a little song. * * * 

 This first song was not long, and not at all loud, but it was distinctly 



