The Cedar-Bird 87 



Goldfinch, whose wants are well supplied, is equally dilatory in 

 its nesting habits. The young Cedar-bird gets about the same 

 kind of food as the young Robin or Oriole, and it is not likely 

 that a greater or less amount of fruit in the diet of old or young 

 would sensibly alter their condition. The Goldfinch, whose 

 eggs hatch in late July or in August, feeds its young on the seeds 

 of thistles, but this does not prove that the seeds of other plants 

 would not do as well, or that young Goldfinches, if hatched in 

 June, would starve. Almost equally remarkable is the early 

 nesting of Crossbills and Ravens. 



So quiet and retired is the Cedar-bird, it may live in com- 

 parative seclusion although not a rod from your house,. and may 

 remain on your grounds for the whole summer unnoticed, unless 

 some one is on the watch, so that the name "chatterer," for- 

 merly applied to the family, can have only an ironical signifi- 

 cance in this least garrulous of birds. The fondness of this bird 

 for the berries of the red cedar and for cherries is responsible for 

 two of its commonest names, while the term "waxwing" has 

 reference to the peculiar horny scales of the secondary wing- 

 quills, which look as if tipped with red sealing-wax. Less com- 

 monly, the tail also bears similar appendages, but there is much 

 variation in their appearance in both old and young. Most of 

 the birds which I have studied at the nest have been entirely 

 lacking in appendages of this kind. In some cases all the 

 nestlings show the red tips at about the eighth or tenth day, 

 or at the moment the feather-tubes of the secondaries burst, 

 while more frequently only one or two in the nest are thus 

 ornamented. 



Late in spring the Cedar-birds are seen coursing about in 

 small squads, selecting some treetop for an observatory, and 

 always showing the most marked uniformity, there being little 

 to distinguish the sexes in either size or color. Their plump 

 oval forms and easy undulating flight are characteristic, and 

 their manner of flying and perching in compact bodies as one 

 bird should not escape the observer. Apple trees of moderate 

 size are in high favor, since they afford such fine opportunities for 

 nest-building, and are usually surrounded by good feeding grounds. 



