90 Wild Birds 



tobacco, a plant growing close by, worked over its rim and 

 interior. 



Four or five eggs are ordinarily laid, but the total product 

 of ten nests which I examined in 1899 was only thirty-six eggs, 

 out of which about twenty-five young were hatched and from 

 sixteen to twenty reared. 



The parental instincts during the early days of nest-building 

 and incubation are often weak, and this is shown to a marked 

 degree in the Cedar-bird, which is easily robbed and ever ready 

 to take fright and abandon its eggs. 



One year, in July a pair began to collect nesting material 

 in an apple tree in full view from our porch, and I frequently 

 watched them at work through an opera-glass, and once or 

 twice passed under their tree. This inspection of their private 

 affairs pleased them so little that they left their completed nest, 

 and moved to the adjoining field a few rods away, where there 

 was less publicity, and where five eggs hatched out on the 

 twenty-sixth of August. A nest built in a young oak tree in a 

 remote clearing was discovered on August 7th, when it con- 

 tained a single egg. I did not see the old birds on this occasion 

 and heard but a faint sound, which was evidently a murmur 

 of remonstrance since their nest was promptly forsaken. 



I have camped beside five different nests of the Cedar Wax- 

 wings, and after having spent more than a week in watching the 

 behavior of both old and young birds at short range, feel that 

 I know by heart most of their nesting habits. 



There is a certain routine which is observed by all birds at 

 the nests. Certain duties must be performed over and over, 

 such as the capture of prey, bringing it and distributing it to the 

 young, inspecting and cleaning the household, besides brood- 

 ing or shielding the young, especially during the early days of 

 life in the nest. To record each visit made and every recurring 

 act performed by the birds would make tedious reading, but 

 strange to say it never seems monotonous to the observer. 

 As the young birds grow older and begin to stand on the rim 

 of the nest they furnish ample excitement, and while their theme 

 is always the same it is delivered with innumerable variations. 



