278 AMPELIS CEDRORUM — CEDAR BIRD. 



Sometimes these fruit trees will be visited by flocks of this 

 bird, who strip the branches of their luscious load, unless 

 prevented. When there are many cherry trees it requires 

 considerable attention to keep them off, and for this purpose 

 a boy with a gun is often posted in the orchard, who makes 

 war upon the birds, and, if he is a good shot, will kill them 

 by dozens, as they sit steady, and perch well up among the 

 topmost branches. 



We have often felt sorry for this wholesale destruction of 

 such a beautiful creature, without being able to give a suf- 

 ficient reason why the carnage should cease. A friend of 

 ours gave the best we have heard, namely, that the shot did 

 more damage, by cutting the bark and branches of the trees, 

 than the birds could do by eating the fruit, and this is often 

 the case. 



As soon as whortleberries are ripe, the Cedar Birds repair 

 to their vicinity, and feed greedily upon them, in preference 

 to cherries. In spring and winter, they eat the berries of 

 juniper and red cedar, the fruit of our native hawthorns, 

 and, in the cities, mountain ash berries. But it is not on 

 wild, uncultivated fruits only that they feed, for they often 

 seek out and devour numbers of insects. The young, in 

 particular, are fed with many of these, and thus this bird 

 repays us in part for the cherries he eats. 



The flocks of these birds and their relatives, the Bohe- 

 mian Chatterer, do not mingle together; at least we never 

 saw any do so. 



Incubation, in this species, takes place much later in the 

 season than is usual with small birds, for the nest is not 

 usually built until the middle of June, and, at the north, 

 near the end of that month. After this time food is abun- 

 dant, and the young are liberally supplied by both parents. 

 The nest is generally built on a low tree, those of the orchard 

 being often selected, and is composed of dry grass, lined 

 with that of finer quality. The eggs are three or four, dingy 



