260 LAND BIRDS 
Nest: Rather bulky ; composed of bark, leaves, roots, twigs, weeds, 
paper, etc.; lined with finer grasses, hair, and wool ; placed usually 
in cedar bushes or orchard trees, from 4 to 18 feet from the ground. 
Eggs: 3 to 5; bluish or light slate-color, tinged with olive, spotted with 
brown and dark purple. Size 0.84 X 0.61 
THE Cedar Waxwing has kept his individuality so 
unchanged in the transit from east to west that the 
California ornithologists have not been able to make a 
Western subspecies of him. In the coniferous forests of 
the Sierra Nevada they are the same handsome, gentle 
birds that we have known and loved in other parts of 
the United States. When other birds are absorbed with 
the cares of nest building, the Waxwings are leisurely 
flying in small companies low over the level tree-tops, 
or sunning themselves on the highest twig of the pines. 
After most of the forest nestlings are out of their cradles 
and foraging for themselves, the quiet Waxwings look 
about for a nesting site and commence building. Only 
the goldfinches are late enough to keep them company. 
Both male and female Waxwings bring material and 
fashion the nest, though the former does most of the 
work. It is a coarse affair to be the home of such 
dainty, satiny birds, and is often in or near a tree bear- 
ing berries or small fruit. Both sexes share in the 
incubation also, brooding by turns of from thirty to sixty 
minutes at a time; but it is the mother who sleeps there 
at night while the father perches in the same tree. 
When large enough to leave the nest, the young 
Waxwings look like their parents, but lack the red waxy 
tips on the wing-feathers. They are very confiding little 
creatures, and I have repeatedly called them to me in 
