CEDAR WAXWING 97 



more, will leave the tree suddenly, twist rapidly around the tops of 

 the elm trees, then, rising clear of the branches, steer straight north- 

 ward and disappear in the distance. 



The restlessness so characteristic of these winter flocks sometimes 

 mounts to seeming panic. Yet this feeling, apparently, seldom spreads 

 to all the members of the gathering. Even when a large proportion 

 sweeps away into the air, the remainder may continue to feed on, 

 uninfluenced by the exodus of the others. Also, those that leave the 

 tree in these precipitous flights do not start necessarily from adjacent 

 branches, but quite the reverse : one flies from here, near us, another 

 from the opposite side of the tree. Indeed, one of two birds sitting 

 side by side may fly, leaving the other undisturbed. Very different 

 from the behavior of a flock of sparrows in this regard! And all 

 the time, whether they are feeding or resting between meals, the birds 

 keep up their gentle, hissing whisper. 



Nathan Clifford Brown (1906) describes an impressive migration 

 of cedarbirds and robins that he saw at Camden, S. C, on February 

 4,1905. He says: 



When I first looked out of doors, Robins and Cedar-birds were flying over in 

 large numbers, going about west-nortbwest. It soon became evident tbat the 

 flight was unusual, and at twenty minutes to nine o'clock I took up a position at 

 a window from which I had an unobstructed view for long distances towards 

 the east, north and west. Here for an hour and a half, pencil and paper in hand, 

 I endeavored to count the passing birds. 



The Robins flew in open order and were little more numerous at one time 

 than another. The Cedar-birds, however, though many of them also went 

 by in open order, were mostly gathered in masses containing from twenty to four 

 hundred birds or more each. They swept along very rapidly. Their largest 

 masses suggested scudding clouds and were decidedly impressive. The Robins 

 moved a good deal more slowly. Both species flew at altitudes varying fi'om 

 twenty to one hundred yards from the ground, and most of the birds passed 

 within a distance of one liundred and fifty yards from my window, — none, I 

 think, farther away than about an eighth of a mile. 



At ten minutes past ten o'clock I was obliged to take up some work which 

 was awaiting me. But I frequently looked out of the window after that hour, 

 and could detect no diminution in the number of passing birds until after one 

 o'clock p. M. All the afternoon they flew by in gradually diminishing numbers, 

 a good many Robins tarrying for brief periods in the fields before my window. 

 Throughout the day the direction of the flight was the same, and there was prac- 

 tically no retrograding : altogether I saw less than a hundred birds coming back, 

 all Robins. 



I found that I had counted a total of twenty thousand four hundred birds In 

 the hour and a half, at least fourteen thousand of which were Cedar-birds. 

 These figures are much inside the mark. Between ten minutes past ten a. m. 

 and one o'clock p. m. twice the number of birds that I had previously counted 

 must have gone by. A multitude had passed before I began counting. Ten 

 thousand, at the lowest estimate possible, must have followed during the re- 

 mainder of the afternoon. In the course of the day, therefore, many more than 

 sixty thousand birds passed over that part of Camden which I overlooked. I 

 believe that seventy-five thousand — fifty thousand Cedar-birds — would be too 



