CEDAR WAXWING. 161 
They have long since abandoned their habit of building in 
hollow trees, and now nest only about houses or in lawns 
where gourds or boxes are erected for 
Purple Martin, = their occupation. To these they return 
Progne subis. ay ‘ 
year after year, arriving in the spring 
about April 25 and remaining until September. The 
male is uniform steel-blue, and appears black in the air ; 
the female is grayish, tinged with steel-blue above; the 
breast is gray, the belly white. This is the largest of 
our Swallows, measuring eight inches in length. 
Waxwines. (FaMILy AMPELID2) 
One of the two species of Waxwing is a bird of the far 
North; the other, our Cedar Waxwing, is found through- 
Cedar Waxwing, Ut North America. Waxwings pos- 
Ampelis cedrorum. e838 in an unusual degree two charac- 
Plate LVI. —_— teristics which are not supposed to be 
associated—sociability and silence. None of our birds is 
more companionable, none more quiet. In their fondness 
for one another’s society they seem to delay the pairing 
season, and long after other birds have gone to house- 
keeping they are still roving about in flocks. Finally, 
late in June, they settle down and build a nest of generous 
proportions, often in some fruit tree, about ten feet from 
the ground. The three to five eggs are pale bluish gray 
or putty-color, spotted with black or brownish black. 
Waxwings fly in close rank and alight as near each 
other as the nature of their perch will allow. They sit 
very still, like little Parrots or Doves, but often raise and 
lower their crests, and perhaps whisper a fine lisping note, 
which is prolonged into a louder call—a string of beady 
notes—as they take wing. 
Their fare varies with the season—cedar berries, straw- 
berries, cherries, both cultivated and wild, the berries 
