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Bird - Lore 



by two females that I took to be Mallards. 

 They were larger than the male. All 

 three were quite fearless and swam toward 

 me until they were not more than ten 

 feet away. I could see the markings 

 perfectly. At 6 o'clock in the evening 

 the Wood Duck and his two companions 

 were still there, and they had been joined 

 by two pairs of Mallards. — R. P. Bige- 

 i.ow, Boston, Mass., March 15, 1917. 



Cedar Waxwings at the Pool 



The accompanying photograph is what 

 might be called a successful disappoint- 

 ment. I imagine most amateur bird 

 photographers will understand what I 

 mean by that. 



One day last winter I went out to a 

 hillside near Tufts College, in Somerville, 

 Mass., in the hope of obtaining a picture 

 of the Evening Grosbeaks that had been 

 reported to me as daily visitors in that 

 locality. It was quite springlike, the 



ground bare and soft. I traveled back and 

 forth over the range where the Grosbeaks 

 were reported, but there were none to be 

 seen. I snapped two Crows on a dead 

 pine, watched a great flock of Cedar 

 Waxwings feeding where the Grosbeaks 

 should have been, and at last set up the 

 camera, with a twenty-foot extension 

 cord, near a bird-bath or fountain in one 

 of the yards on the hill. 



The Waxwings had been coming to the 

 bath at intervals, and at last, after quite 

 a period of waiting, I succeeded in getting 

 a group, as the photograph shows. Four- 

 teen Waxwings and one English Sparrow 

 are around the edges of the pool, another 

 Sparrow is in the background, and at 

 least five Waxwings are in the air, but the 

 camera was not quick enough to show 

 them clearly. No Grosbeaks were seen 

 that day, but the trip was worth the time 

 it occupied, and the picture is a spur to 

 further efforts. — John B. May, M.D., 

 Cohasset, Mass. 



CEDAR WAXWINGS AT THE POOL 

 Photographed by John B. May 



