I" JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



colony 011 Gravel Island, Wisconsin, tells of a similar, though much 

 simpler, "dance" or "game." 



Reading thus of distant colonial birds, one envies these fortu- 

 nate men their opportunities for observing such strangely interest- 

 ing traits. It is then especially a pleasure to discover that the 

 common birds around our homes may have a development of the 

 social instinct, if not so wonderful, at least nearly as fascinating to 

 watch. 



Coming through an apple orchard one noontime in May, 1909, 

 I stopped to watch a large flock of Cedar Waxwings feeding on the 

 apple blossom petals, and then it was my good fortune to see as 

 pretty a sight as could be imagined among birds. The attention of 

 the birds seemed about evenly divided between eating petals and 

 playing a sort of game. Looking from tree to tree I saw it going 

 on all around me. 



It was a game for two. One bird, taking the initiative, with a 

 petal in his mouth, suddenly flew to his chosen playmate, alighting 

 close beside him on the twig, at the same instant offering the petal ; 

 (once it was a bit of green leaf). The other bird, though appar- 

 ently taken unawares, was quick enough to catch it on the instant 

 it was offered. Immediately, with the petal, he hopped sidewise 

 just one small hop away from the first bird. After a pause of per- 

 haps a second, back he came close to the bird and offering the petal, 

 which the first bird on the instant caught from his bill, hopped away 

 with it just one hop, paused a second, then very suddenly hopped 

 back, offering the petal, all just as the other bird had done. And 

 so they passed the petal back and forth, not three or four times, but 

 twelve and fifteen times, until, tiring of the play, they flew apart, or 

 the petal, with much hasty snatching from bill to bill becoming tat- 

 tered and too small for use, was indifferently eaten by one of the 

 birds. 



In the moments of pause before the always sudden re-offering 

 of the petal, each bird looked straight ahead ; the one with the 

 petal as if trying to conceal from the other the instant he meant to 

 come back with it, and the one awaiting the petal as if the rules of 



