HMDS. 



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feathers are tipped with horn like red sealing-wax. The two look much 

 alike, but the waxwing is the larger bird, as well as the rarest with us. 

 It but rarely appears in the eastern United States, but in the west it some- 

 times occurs in enormous flocks. For years nothing was known of its 

 nesting habits, except that it must bring forth its young at the far north. 

 At last the eggs were found in Lapland by Mr. Wolley, who readily sold 

 his duplicates for twenty-five dollars apiece. In America the nests have 

 been found but twice, each containing but a single egg ; one coming from 



Fig. ■4G2. — Bohemian waxwing (Ampelis garruld). 



the Yukon, the other from the iVnderson River. The waxwing is very 

 erratic in its movements, and neither necessities of food nor weather seem 

 to explain their wanderings. One year large flocks will visit a locality, 

 and then for years none will be seen. This periodicity is far more marked 

 in Europe than with us, and their advent in olden times was regarded as 

 certain a foreboding of disaster as that of a comet. 



The cedar-bird is much more familiar, and in the summer, when the 

 cherries are ripe, this bird may be frequently seen upon the topmost branch, 

 eating his fill. This cherry-eating habit makes the bird many enemies, 

 but it far more than repays the damage it does, by the amount of insects 



