128 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



same localities farther north. As mates, the wax- 

 wings are very much attached to each other. 

 Once a bird was taken captive, and its mate re- 

 fused to leave it, allowing itself to be caught, that 

 it might be with the one it loved so much. A 

 young one fell from its nest in a storm, and was 

 taken into the house to be cared for until it should 

 recover. The parent birds fed it between the 

 cage-bars, as we have known the mockers and 

 orioles to do. 



You may know if a waxwing is happy or miser- 

 able by the way it wears its crest. If happy and 

 free, it lifts this beautiful black crest, and if in 

 confinement or otherwise unhappy, it keeps it 

 depressed. 



Waxwings nest in trees or bushes. The eggs 

 are four to six, slate or olive color splashed with 

 browns. The parent birds do not tell a stranger 

 where the nest is placed, as so many of our birds 

 do, but are said to keep very quiet, scarely whis- 

 pering to each other during the whole period of 

 nesting. 



We have taken wounded waxwings into the 

 house in winter and nursed them until well again 

 and able to fly away with their folks. Waxwings 

 fly swiftly, and are so busy admiring the country, 

 perhaps, that they do not see our telegraph wires 



