1642 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



his owner's arm. The cry of the young bird for food is loud and incessant. The 

 cedar bird flocks in July and August, and betakes itself to regions in which whortle- 

 berries are plentiful, in order to gorge upon the fruit. In October these birds de- 

 scend to the lower parts of the country, to feed upon the berries of the red cedar; 

 thirty or forty birds may sometimes be seen fluttering among the branches of one 

 small cedar tree, plucking off the berries. In the fall and beginning of summer the 

 cedar bird becomes extremely fat; hence it was formerly esteemed for the table. 

 The adult bird has the head, neck, breast, upper part of the back, and wing coverts 

 purplish cinnamon, shading into ash on the rump; the forehead, lores, and eye stripe 

 are black; the wings slaty gray, with the inner feathers tipped with red horny ap- 

 pendages, and the tail is gray, tipped with yellow. 



