1911 J Saunders, Nesting of (he Cedar Waxwing. 327 



in a body for the cherry trees, returned in the same manner when 

 the food was obtained and then scattered slowly to their respective 

 nests. 



The birds were rather irregular about cleaning their nests and 

 individuals differed considerably in this respect. Small undigested 

 parts of the food of the young, such as the cherry stones, often 

 remained in the bottom of the nests, and it was by examining the 

 nests after the young had left that I obtained the most information 

 concerning the nature of the food. Stones of the wild cherry 

 (Primus serotina) were most abundant. With them were usually 

 a few seeds of the pokeberry (Phytolacca decandra) and the choke- 

 berry (Pyrus arbidifolia), wing cases of beetles, small snail shells, 

 and pebbles. The latter two were evidently obtained along the 

 shore and were always smaller than the cherry stones. The snail 

 shells had the appearance of the sun-bleached empty ones found 

 above high-water mark, rather than those of live snails. Both 

 shells and pebbles had evidently passed through the systems of 

 the young, but why the birds should feed empty shells and pebbles 

 to the young is rather a mystery and I would not have mentioned 

 my suspicion that this is so, were it not strengthened by other 

 observations. Twice I saw a Waxwing on the shore above high- 

 water mark near the cherry trees. In both cases the tide was too 

 high for it to obtain live snails, but each time I frightened the bird 

 away before I could see what it was doing. 



I kept careful watch of the growth and development of the young 

 Waxwings. In only three of the nests did I ascertain the exact 

 date of hatching, but I was able to get the age of the other broods 

 approximately by comparison of their development with that of 

 the broods whose age I knew. These three broods left the nest, 

 one in fourteen, one in sixteen and one in eighteen days. The 

 other broods all left when they were approximately sixteen or 

 seventeen days old. The young when born are perfectly naked, 

 without the natal down found in most young birds. The first 

 few days they grow in size only. By the fourth day a row of small 

 black pimples shows along the middle of the back where the first 

 feathers are starting through. In six days the feathers of the back 

 and the wing quills come through and pimples begin to show on the 

 breast. By seven or eight days the eyes begin to open and more 



