114 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



of tenderness, and are often seen kissing each 

 other. Gumpei Kuwada, the young Japanese ob- 

 server at Northampton, Massachusetts, has sent 

 me some interesting notes on the subject. He 

 says : " On the 7th of May I saw a very large 

 flock of cedar-birds, Ampelis cedrorum. Two of 

 these were seated on a branch a little distance 

 apart, and one hopped toward the other and bent 

 down his head and -touched the bill of the other 

 with his own bill, then went back to his place; 

 then the second bird went to the first bird and 

 went through the same motions and returned to 

 his place; then the first bird repeated the per- 

 formance, and so these two cedar-birds went alter- 

 nately and touched each other's bills for about 

 five minutes. The action of the two birds was so 

 funny that I could not call it anything else but 

 that they fell in love and kissed each other. It 

 could not possibly have been a mother feeding 

 her young, because it was so early in the season, 

 and they were in a flock and had nothing in their 

 bills, and their bills were shut." 



The cedar -birds are not only affectionate in 

 their own families, but sometimes show the most 

 human compassion to stranger birds. Mrs. 

 Martha D. Jones, of Northampton, writes me of 

 a touching instance of their friendliness. She 

 says : " Last summer my sister watched for weeks 

 a robin's nest in an apple-tree some ten feet from 

 her chamber window. She could see into the nest, 



