THE WAXWING FAMILY 67 
did eat many of the white petals of the flowers. 
But I wanted to be sure, so I watched carefully 
with my glass. Then I stayed by that orchard 
till October, and I never saw trees so loaded with 
apples as they were. Many branches lay on the 
ground with their weight of fruit, and in the 
whole orchard there was but one insect nest. 
That showed not only that the cedar-birds had 
done no harm, but that probably they had de- 
stroyed thousands of insects that would have 
done harm. 
A bird classed with the waxwings is a Califor- 
nia bird, the PHarnopEepya, or SHINING CRESTED 
FrycatcHeR. He is glossy bluish black in 
color, with large white spots in the wings, which 
show only when flying. His mate is brownish 
gray. They are rather slim birds, nearly as big 
as a catbird. 
The phainopepla is a beautiful fellow, with an 
elegant pointed crest, and plumage shining like 
satin. He sits up very straight on his perch, but 
he is a rather shy bird, and so not much is known 
about his ways. He is a real mountain lover, liv- 
ing’ on mountains, or in canons, or the borders of 
small streams of California, Arizona, and Texas. 
As you see by one of his names, he is a fly- 
catcher. Sometimes thirty or forty of them may 
