56 Bird - Lore 



such vigor that it passed the House in spite of all the arguments that could 

 be advanced regarding the usefulness of the birds. In the Senate, however, 

 these arguments were dropped, and the senators were shown mounted speci- 

 mens of the bird. That was enough; its beauty conquered and the bill was 

 defeated. 



The Cedar Waxwing is found throughout the wooded por- 

 Range tions of North America, from the fur countries southward, and 



winters in most of the United States and southward to Cuba, 

 Mexico and Panama. It is accidental in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica 

 and Great Britain. It breeds from British Columbia to northern Ontario and 

 northwestern Quebec and south to southern Oregon and North Carolina. 



Perhaps in the white days of winter you may see a little 

 Notes flock sitting upright upon some leafless tree, calling softly to 



each other in their high-pitched, lisping, sibilant monotone. As 

 Mr. Dawson says: "It is as though you had come upon a company of the 

 Immortals, high-removed, conversing of matters too recondite for human ken, 

 and who survey you the while with Olympian disdain." 



During the nesting-season they become silent indeed, but several compe- 

 tent ornithologists have heard a low song. Judging from my own experience, 

 however, this song must be about as rare as that of the dying Swan — which, 

 by the way, is not a myth. Mr. Brewster has heard our Waxwing give a suc- 

 cession of loud, full notes, not unlike those uttered by Tree Swallows in spring. 

 On several occasions they have been given by a bird circling high in air, as if 

 in song flight, but he has heard similar cries uttered by woimded birds of this 

 species, and suspects that these calls are merely a succession of alarm notes. 



The Cedar Waxwing breeds very late, raising its young in 

 Nest and Eggs July or August, when wild cherries and blueberries furnish them 

 an abundant supply of food. In New England, the earliest nests 

 sometimes have eggs by the second week in June. The breeding-season is at 

 its height by the last of July. Sometimes a pair raises two broods, and a few 

 have young in the nest in September. The nesting-site varies greatly. The 

 nest is often located on some tree from which the waxwing gets its food, 

 although I have never seen its nest in a cherry tree. The apple is commonly 

 chosen, also the Virginia juniper or red cedar. Sometimes, in settled regions, 

 the nest is placed on a low limb or a hedge not more than five or six feet from 

 the ground, sometimes in tall elms or maples, more rarely in the top of a birch 

 or some pasture tree. Both male and female engage in nest-building ; the male 

 often brings nesting-material, while the female fashions it into shape. In the 

 forested regions of the North, the nests are found in spruce or hackmatack 

 trees in open swamps. The nest varies as much in material and construction 

 as in situation. In the South it is comparatively small and compact, built 

 mainly of small twigs, grass culms, weed-stalks and leaves, and lined with fine 

 grasses and grass roots. In the farming regions of the North the nest is often 



