94 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



musical and pleasing. It was made up of little trills, interspersed 

 with his usual soft single notes. * * * it was a nearly continu- 

 ous warbling, a varied arrangement of short trills, some higher, some 

 lower, with a few connecting or finishing single notes, and occasionally 

 a glide. One needed to be rather near to get all the modulations, 

 as the voice was soft." 



N. S. Goss (1891) mentions thus a similar song: "They are geuT 

 erally spoken of as birds without a song, and their feeble attempt 

 is hardly worthy to be called one; they do, however, at times, utter 

 low, warbling notes, with tremulous wings, in a manner expressive 

 of love and joy ; in sound very similar to their lisping call notes, but 

 much softer. It is evidently not intended for outsiders, for its voice 

 is scarcely audible twenty paces away." 



William Brewster (1906) calls attention to a note, evidently of 

 rare occurrence. He says : 



Various writers Imve asserted that the Cedar Waxwing has no vocal utterances 

 other than the thin, hissing calls which are familiar to everyone. I have heard 

 it give a succession of loud, full notes, rather mellow in quality and not unlike 

 some of those which Tree Swallows use in spring. On several occasions I have 

 known them to be uttered by a single Waxwing that had just left a feeding flock 

 and was circling rather high in air, over a field, performing what looked like a 

 song flight. I suspect, however, that these swallow-like calls represent cries 

 of alarm or of apprehension, rather than song notes, for sounds very like them 

 are often made by wounded Waxwings. 



Aretas A. Saunders (1935) records a striking note, saying: "Only 

 once have I heard any other sound [beside the common note] from 

 this species. Then, when I found and caught a bird that had broken 

 its wing against a wire, it literally slirieked with fright. The sound 

 was high-pitched, loud, and strident, strongly suggesting the voice 

 of the Kingbird." 



In his studies of "Vibration Frequencies of Passerine Bird Song," 

 Albert E. Brand (1938) says: "The difference in frequency between 

 the first three [birds showing highest frequency], Blackpoll, Grass- 

 hopper Sparrow and Cedar Waxwing, is only about a half a note, 

 and is so small and the pitch so high, that an ear would have to be 

 remarkably accurate to recognize the pitch difference." 



Margaret Morse Nice (1941) points out the usefulness of the cedar 

 waxwing's voice. She says: "A peculiarity of the Cedar Waxwing 

 was its habitual use of the characteristic note whenever it took flight. 

 This species has nothing in its plumage resembling 'banner mark- 

 ings'; its 'flight note' is evidently an important device for keeping 

 the flock together, and it must be particularly valuable with this bird 

 that is apt suddenly to take off on long flights." 



Field marks. — There is no mistaking the cedarbird — a little, pale- 

 brown bird with a conspicuous crest — for any other species except 

 the Bohemian waxwing. This larger bird has a white patch in the 

 wing and is chestnut under the tail, whereas the cedarbird has no 

 white in the wing and has a white crissum. . 



