CHAPTER XXI. 



THE CEDAR BIRDS: WITH NOTES ON WHERE BIRDS LAY THEIR 



EGGS. 



(Ampelidw, Turdus, Vireo, etc.) 



ANY of our birds are far better known to people at large 

 than are others. As, for example, bluejays, robins, 

 catbirds, wrens, crows, bluebirds, and the like, are 

 recognized upon sight by almost any one certainly 

 by any intelligent person; but this is by no means the case when 

 such forms as vireos, kinglets, pipits, leucostictes, blue-headed 

 euphonias, and others come to be considered. 



Cedar birds most emphatically belong to the first class men- 

 tioned, and the graceful form of this species and its exquisitely 

 delicate plumage are so well known that neither require any de- 

 tailed description here. As I write, I have before me twenty-one 

 beautiful skins of cedar birds belonging to my son's private col- 

 lection. They were all taken by ourselves last summer, near 

 Washington, D. C., and prepared by him. Both sexes are fully 

 represented, as well as the young, and the series as a whole ex- 

 hibits various plumage phases. There are also before me many 

 photographs of cedar birds taken by myself last spring and sum- 

 mer, from living specimens that we captured. One of these lat- 

 ter, a fine adult male, I likewise possess at this time, he having 

 been kept as a cage bird by me for nearly six months. At pres- 

 ent (October 10) he is in molt, and the process in this species is 

 most interesting to observe and study. Figs. 72 and 73, here 

 shown, are reproduced from photographs I made of this bird 

 when he was in full plumage, while in Fig. 74 we have him again, 

 in company with a female which I had alive at that time. 



These birds tame very easily, and are quite as easily kept. 

 They are passionately fond of a variety of berries, as any of the 

 small garden fruits, as they likewise are of gumberries, pokeber- 

 ries, and cedarberries. In nature, when these latter are ripe, the 

 cedar birds flock to the trees, often in considerable numbers, to 

 feed, and owing to this circumstance it has received one of its 

 names. Although its plumage in confinement seems to be kept 

 in the very neatest possible trim, I have never seen the bird 

 bathe; yet they are very fond of having their cage placed out so 

 they may gain the advantage of a gentle shower. 



