BIRDS OF PENNSYL VANIA. 259 



found in flocks, which in many sections seem most numerous in May 

 and the first two weeks in June. The somewhat flat and rather bulky 

 nest, composed of small twigs, roots, grasses, bits of string, feathers or 

 other soft materials, is built in trees in groves and orchards, particularly 

 apple orchards. The eggs, usually five in number, are dull bluish-gray 

 spotted and blotched with black and brownish. They measure about 

 .90 by .65 of an inch. Cedar-birds fly in compact flocks, and when they 

 alight huddle close together on the limbs and twigs. They apparently 

 prefer to light on dead branches of trees, and in the spring, or when they 

 visit cherry trees, this habit is frequently taken advantage of by the 

 observing farmer, who fastens to a long pole a dead branch, with numer- 

 ous small twigs, and fixes it in the fruit tree so that the entire branch 

 will project above the tree top, then stationing himself near by he can 

 shoot the birds as they alight, without injuring, with shot, the tree or its 

 ripening fruit. Some few years ago two farmers, residing near West 

 Chester, killed one day in this manner over one hundred and fifty Cherry- 

 birds, shooting from seven to twenty at each discharge. These birds, 

 as their common names would signify, subsist chiefly on a fruit and 

 berry diet ; the many varieties of cultivated cherries, mulberries, whor- 

 tleberries, wild grapes, berries of the gum, cedar and mountain ash, also 

 the fruit of the poke plant, are its favorite food. In the spring they 

 often visit orchards and gardens to feed on insects or devour portions 

 of the apple blossoms. Cherry-birds are very expert flycatchers and 

 they also destroy great numbers of caterpillars. Nuttall writing of this 

 species says although a small portion of the gardener's cherry crop is 

 destroyed " they fail not to assist in ridding his trees of more deadly 

 enemies which infect them, and the small caterpillars, beetles and vari- 

 ous insects^ now constitute their only food ; and for hours at a time they 

 may be seen feeding on the all-despoiling canker-worms, which infest 

 our apple trees and elms. On these occasions, silent and sedate, after 

 plentifully feeding, they sit dressing their feathers, in near contact on 

 the same branch, to the number of five or six ; and, as the season of 

 selective attachment approaches, they may be observed pluming each 

 other, and caressing with the most gentle fondness. 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 offer, the morsel has pro- 

 ceeded backwards and forwards before it was appropriated." 



FAMILY LANIID-ffi. SHRIKES. 

 THE SHRIKES. 



Two species and one geographical "race " of this family occur in Pennsylvania. 

 The Northern Shrike, although recorded by Dr. W. P. Turnbull and some few other 

 observers as a summer resident "on the mountain ridges of the Alleghanies," does 



