286 THE CEDAR WAXWING. 
eyes upon him—those marvelous melting browns, those shifting saffrons and 
Quaker drabs, those red sealing-wax tips on the wing-quills (he is canning 
cherries, you see,and co mes provided ). Feast your eyes, I say, 
and carry the vision to the table with you, and a few lesscher- 
ries. Or if there are not enough for 
breadth of mosquito- netting over 
you both, draw a decent 
the tree, and absolve 
your soul 
of murder- 
ous intent. 
Remember, 
too, if you 
require self- 
justifica- 
tons) ital t 
earlier in the season he 
devoured an enormous 
quantity of canker 
worms and other simi- 
lar pests, so that he has 
a clear right to a share 
in the fruit of his labors. 
The Cedar-bird being 
so. singularly endowed 
Photo With the gift of beauty, 1s 
by the — denied the gift ofsong. He 
Taken in 
McConnelsville. 
Author. 3 
is themost nearly voiceless 
A PARTNERSHIP AFFAIR. of any of the American 
MR. C. H. MORRIS FURNISHED THE RAGS AND THE CEDAR-BIRD Oscines, his sole note be- 
DID THE WORK. . . . a: 
ing a high-pitched, sibilant 
squeak. Indeed, so high-pitched is this extraordinary note, that I find several 
of my friends cannot hear it at all, even when the Waxwings are squeaking all 
about them. It is an almost uncanny spectacle, that of a company of Waxwings 
sitting aloft in some leafless tree early in spring, erect, immovable, like soldiers 
on dress parade, but complaining to each other in that faint, penetrating mono- 
tone. It is as tho you had come upon a company of the Immortals, high-re- 
moved, conversing of matters too recondite for human ken, and who survey you 
the while with Olympian disdain. You steal away from the foot of the tree 
with a chastened sense of having encountered something not quite under- 
standable. 
The dilatory habits of these birds are well shown in their nesting, whici 
they put off until late June or July for no apparent reason. ‘They build a thick- 
walled, well-set structure of weed-stalks, roots, grass, etc., oftenest in orchard 
