284 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



terial resembling red sealing wax. Specimens are occa- 

 sionally met with wherein similar bits are to be found 

 on the ends of one or more of the tail feathers, gener- 

 ally on several of them ; but it is exceedingly rare to find 

 a s|)ecimen where all of the tail-feathers are so orna- 

 mented. 



In the Bohemian Waxwing of the northern parts of 

 this coimtry, the Cedar bird 

 has a close relative ; the 

 form is considerably larg- 

 er, though very similar to 

 its more diminutive cousin 

 in other respects, such as 

 plumage and the tips of 

 wax. I never saw this spe- 

 cies alive in nature but 

 once, and that was a speci- 

 men I collected at Fort 

 Fetterman, Wyoming, fully 

 forty years ago. It is said 

 they occur in great flocks 

 in northern United States 

 and throughout many parts 

 of Canada, and that they 

 have the same habits as the 

 Cedar bird, which is like- 

 wise often met with in 

 flocks of a hundred and 

 fifty or more; indeed, in 

 New England, I have seen 

 flocks composed of at least 

 three hundred individuals. 

 They are very silent at all 

 times, possessing only a 

 few low notes of a peculiar 

 t-ze, t-se character and 

 never anything approach- 

 ing a song. Then, too, 

 they are noted for their 

 brave defence of their 

 young when these are in 

 danger, although they seem 

 to care but little when their 

 eggs are in danger of being 

 taken. 



Foresters and agricultur- 

 ists generally should know 

 that this species is one of 

 the best friends they have, 

 in that it preys upon sev- 

 eral species of insects that 

 are injurious to a great variety of trees those of the 

 forest as well as orchard varieties, especially apple and 

 pear. 



Shortly after they leave the nest, young Cedar birds 

 have a curious way of standing together on a twig or 

 some small branch, stretching out their necks to the 

 limit; and in this attitude they will remain as mi- 



A YOUNG CEDAR BIRD 



Fig., 3. This very unusual picture shows the nestling at the time 

 it leaves the nest. It will stand on its perch in the quaint atti- 

 tude here shown for upwards of halt an hour. 



movable as statuettes for a considerable time, or un- 

 til the old ones approach with food. A single bird so 

 posed was photographed by me some years ago, and it is 

 here reproduced in Figure 3. 



Some birds may breed in early summer for the reason 

 that their first nest was destroyed in some way, contain- 

 ing either their eggs or their young. I once found the 



nest and eggs of our Ruby- 

 throated Humming-bird 

 early in June, and I shall 

 always believe that some 

 misfortune had overtaken 

 their first attempt to rear 

 the two fledglings that con- 

 stitute the family in that 

 wonderful assemblage of 

 bird-forms. All the "Hum- 

 mers" lay but two eggs to 

 the clutch, and these are in- 

 variably pure white and of 

 an ellipsoidal form. Nests 

 of several species of our 

 Humming-birds are here 

 shown in Figure 4, and 

 few things in nature are 

 more beautiful or interest- 

 ing. The majority of our 

 North American Humming 

 birds construct nests much 

 after the form seen in the 

 illustration little, cup- 

 shaped affairs, frequently 

 overlaid with bits of moss 

 or lichen, pasted on by the 

 builder through the use of 

 its own glutinous saliva. As 

 to the body of the nest it- 

 self, it is usually construct- 

 ed of some cottony mate- 

 rial obtained by the bird 

 from various species of 

 plants and trees. Some six 

 or seven hundred species ot 

 these little gems of the bird 

 world have been described 

 by ornithologists ; they 

 are entirely confined to the 

 Americas and to some of 

 the off-lying islands of the 

 West Indies. Some of the 

 tropical hummers build 

 very remarkable nests, and many of these are figured in 

 a work on Humming-birds, published a number of years 

 ago by our distinguished ornithologist, Mr. Robert Ridg- 

 way. 



The Ruby-throat is easily reared as a pet, and some 

 time ago I found a single young one in a nest that had 

 been built in an oak in a piece of woods in southern 



