BIRDS OF MINNESOTA 359 



Mr. F. L. Washburn, whose observations in the Red river 

 valley have been of great value to me, says: "About the mid- 

 dle of August there is present, flying over the sloughs and 

 ponds, (in the region of the Thief river, &c), a small gauze- like, 

 transparent, white fly, a species of coleoptera, of which the 

 Cedar Bird is apparently very fond. For almost half an hour 

 I watched six of these birds, constantly on the wing, hovering 

 over a slough and catching quantities of these insects. They 

 seemed never to grow tired, but flew slowly against the wind, 

 deviating now a little to this side, now to that, until they reached 

 the end of the slough, when back they came to repeat the same 

 maneuvre and go over the same ground again and again. Oc- 

 casionally they uttered the characteristic note of the species, 

 but for the most part flew silently. During the time I stood 

 watching them they did not once rest. These birds are also 

 partial to the black currants which are found in the woods at 

 this season." 



They arrive in considerable flocks about the 1st of April,, 

 some years a month earlier in the lower counties, and not very 

 infrequently two weeks later than the average date first men- 

 tioned. Occasions are not wanting where a few individuals 

 have lingered all winter. Soon after the 1st of May the larger 

 flocks are subdivided, until only pairs remain together, and 

 they build their nests on a horizontal limb of different species 

 of trees in the pasture, about the house or in the timber. It 

 consists of stalks of weeds, strips of bark, leaves, grass, fine 

 roots, etc. Deeply hollowed, it is lined with fine grass, roots 

 and horse hairs. They usually lay five light bluish eggs with 

 a shade of purple or brown, and marked somewhat with black 

 spots and obscure spots of brown. They raise two broods. 



I have found them in considerable numbers as late as the 

 16th of December, but they usually leave this latitude by the 

 1st of November in considerable parties, skirting the timber 

 belts in the direction they take. No bird without a song 

 should be more welcome to the general or special agriculturist 

 than the beautiful Cedar Bird. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head crested; general color reddish-olive, passing on the 

 neck, head and breast, into purplish-cinnamon, posteriorly on 

 the upper parts, into ash, and on the lower into yellow; under 

 tail coverts white; chin dark sooty-black, fading ins en sibly 

 into the ground color on the throat; forehead, loral region, 

 space below the eye and a line above it, intense black; quills 



24 z 



