1004 KEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



14, 1891. It was built in a huckleberry bush, six feet up. Its outside 

 diameter was 5.50 inches; inside, 5.00 inches; inside depth, 2.00 inches. 

 It was composed of grass and small twigs, lined with grapevine bark, 

 "old man" moss and lichens. In fall and winter wild fruit, berries and 

 seeds form much of their food. In winter nothing attracts them so 

 much as the hackberry (Celtis occidentalis ) . Some years, early in 

 spring, they are found living upon redbuds. Prof. F. E. L. Beal re- 

 ports that of 152 stomachs examined, animal matter constituted 13 

 per cent, and vegetable matter 87 per cent, of the food. Except a few 

 snails, all the animal food was insects, most of which were noxious. 

 Of the vegetable food, 74 per cent, was wild fruit or seeds, and 13 per 

 cent, cultivated fruit, including raspberries and blackberries, which 

 may or may not have been cultivated kinds. The Cedar Waxwing is 

 shown to feed its young almost exclusively upon insects. Of cherries 

 it eats only the early kinds, and them not so extensively as has been 

 supposed. From the fact that its food is so varied, it possesses the 

 power to become a valuable bird in an emergency which may be caused 

 at any time by an insect outbreak. Prof. S. A. Forbes has shown 

 that in an orchard infested with canker-worms, the most useful bird 

 was the Cedar Bird, about 30 of which had apparently taken up their 

 residence in the orchard and were feeding entirely on the worms. 

 The number in each stomach, determined by actual count, ranged 

 from 70 to 101, and it was usually nearly 100. These 30 birds were, 

 therefore, eating the pests at the rate of 3,000 a day, or 90,000 for the 

 month during which the caterpillar is exposed to their attacks (Kept. 

 Mich. Hort. Soc., 1881, p. 204). 



They have a peculiar, lisping note, uttered in a monotone varying 

 in pitch. As they sit among the branches of an Early Richmond 

 cherry tree in early June, the note seems to be inhaled, and reminds 

 me of a small boy who, when eating juicy fruit, makes a noise by in- 

 halation in endeavoring to prevent the loss of the juice and then ex- 

 claims, "How good!" As the birds start to fly, each repeats the note 

 three or four times. These notes develop into a song as the summer 

 comes on; a lisping and peculiar song that tells that the flocks are 

 resolving into pairs as the duties of the season press upon them. 



