276 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



wonder they had to keep busy in order to secure a good 

 meal. Occasionally one would find a grub or an insect 

 which he ate greedily. 



Fortunately my sister knew these birds. They were 

 cedar waxwings. She said that they feed on cedar berries, 

 especially in the winter. I have seen them doing this 

 many a time since. 



As we watched these birds, a swarm of mosquitoes came 

 dancing through the air and immediately these birds be- 

 gan catching them. Flying back and forth through the 

 swarm they followed it until it passed into the bushes 

 where the members of the swarm could not be easily caught. 

 I came to know these birds well in later days, and there is 

 no bird with which I am acquainted that is more active 

 in catching flies, gnats, and other flying insects than the 

 cedar waxwing. 



When the crane flies emerge from the meadows in the 

 springtime, these waxwings catch them by the hundreds. 

 In his notes on birds of Minnesota Dr. Hatch quotes a Mr. 

 Washburn as stating that one day in August in the Red 

 River Valley of Minnesota he watched a half dozen cedar 

 waxwings hovering over a slough and catching insects. 

 He states that these birds were on the wing constantly 

 for almost half an hour passing back and forth among 

 the insects which they caught steadily. He says that not 

 once during all this time did one of these birds alight and 

 for the most part they were so busy that they did not even 

 take time to utter their characteristic notes. 



When our cherries were ripe I saw my first dead wax- 

 wing. We had a number of cherry trees and ordinarily 

 allowed the birds to eat all they wished without let or hin- 

 drance. That spring father and mother gave consent for 



