The Cedar Waxwing 245 



ary observations. In this I was mistaken, for I saw them bill- 

 ing or kissing each other, and it was a most interesting sight. 

 On another occasion, during cherry time, I looked out of the 

 window from my study and saw a small flock of them feeding 

 upon my neighbor's May cherries, and saw some of them pass- 

 ing cherries to others. On this occasion I heard the peculiar 

 lisping notes of "ze, ze, ze" of these birds, and we are told 

 that it is the only noise they make in song or otherwise. As 

 Ernest Thompson Seton says, they are "the silent ones." 



The American goldfinch and cedar waxwing are alike in 

 that they roam about the country in flocks when the other birds 

 are nesting, and, as a rule, do not commence nest building until 

 July and August. Until the summer of 1906 I had never seen 

 the nest 6f a cedar waxwing. Sunday morning, August 5th, I 

 noticed that a goldfinch had commenced building her nest on 

 the lower limb of an elm tree on the front lawn at Somerleaze. 

 She worked very industriously at it until nine o'clock, when 

 I went down to see what progress she was making. I found 

 she had gathered quite a quantity of material and was in the 

 act of fitting it about her body. My presence alarmed her and 

 she flew away. I came back to the veranda and resumed my 

 watch. Presently a cedar waxwing, the first one that I had 

 seen for three years, alighted on the lower end of the limb 

 upon which the goldfinch had commenced her nest. In look- 

 ing about she discovered the goldfinch's material, hopped up 

 to it, took a bill full of it and flew away to the east. Soon she 

 came back and took another bill full, and this she continued 

 to do until she had taken all of the goldfinch's material. I 

 followed her and found that she was using the goldfinch's ma- 

 terial in building her own nest on another elm tree on the east 

 lawn, about twenty feet from the ground. 



In watching the waxwing on her nest I was reminded that 

 Miss Merriam says: "Although it is always a pleasure to see 

 them, they are particularly well worth watching at the nest. 

 They are birds of remarkable affection and intelligence, and 

 their habits are peculiarly interesting. By raising and lower- 

 ing their crests they gain great variety of expression, and when 

 about the nest assume protective attitudes, drawing them- 

 selves up to look like long-necked bottles or sticks of wood, 



