CEDAR WAXWING. I55 



all of which countries they are now either common or abun- 

 dant. As observed by Audubon, their flight is easy, continued, 

 and often performed at a considerable height ; and Ihey move 

 in flocks or companies, making several turns before they alight. 

 As the mildness of spring returns, and with it their favorite 

 food, they reappear in the Northern and Eastern States about 

 the beginning of April, before the ripening of their favorite 

 fruits, the cherries and mulberries. But at this season, to re- 

 pay the gardener for the tithe of his crop, their natural due, 

 they fail not to assist in ridding his trees of more deadly ene- 

 mies which infest them, and the small caterpillars, beetles, and 

 various insects now constitute their only food ; and for hours 

 at a time they may be seen feeding on the all-despoihng canker- 

 worms which infest our apple-trees and elms. On these oc- 

 casions, silent and sedate, after plentifully feeding, they sit 

 dressing their feathers in near contact on the same branch to 

 the number of 5 or 6 ; and as the season of selective attach- 

 ment approaches, they may be observed pluming each other, 

 and caressing with the most gentle fondness, — a playfulness in 

 w^hich, however, they are even surpassed by the contemned 

 Raven, to which social and friendly family our Cedar Bird, 

 different as he looks, has many traits of alliance. But these 

 demonstrations of attachment, which in a more vigorous kind 

 would kindle the feud of jealousy, apparently produce in this 

 bird scarcely any diminution of the general social tie ; and as 

 they are gregarious to so late a period of the inviting season of 

 incubation, this affection has been supposed to be independent 

 of sexual distinction. This friendly trait is carried so far that 

 an eye-witness assures me he has seen one among a row of 

 these birds seated upon a branch dart after an insect, and offer 

 it to his associate when caught, who very disinterestedly passed 

 it to the next, and each delicately declining the oifer, the morsel 

 has proceeded backwards and forwards before it was appro- 

 priated. Whatever may be the fact, as it regards this peculiar 

 sociability, it frequently facilitates the means of their destruc- 

 tion with the thoughtless and rapacious sportsman, who, be- 

 cause many of these unfortunate birds can be killed in an 



