264 BIRDS OF ^ORTH CAROLINA 



nest in a Kingfisher's burrow in Gates County in June, 1892. The Swallow's nest 

 covered deeply the four abandoned eggs of a Kingfisher. 



Like all our swallows, this species is exclusively insectivorous, and is worthy of 

 the fullest protection. On account of its great powers of flight, which it shares 

 with all the rest of the family, it is able to seek its prey over a wide range of country. 



48. FAMILY BOMBYCILI_ID>E. WAXW1NGS 



This family contains but a single genus and three species, one of these being 

 American, a second Japanese, and the third occurs in the northern portions of 

 Europe, Asia, and America. All are crested, and the plumage is very soft and silky. 



Genus Bombycilla (Vieill.) 

 261. Bombycilla cedrorum (Vieill.). CEDAR WAXWING. 



Description. Plumage soft and silky and cinnamon-drab in color. Secondaries often tipped 

 with horny appendages resembling red sealing wax. These are frequently absent in females and 

 young birds. Tail tipped with yellow. Extreme measurements of 35 specimens from Raleigh: 

 L., 6.50-7.35; W., 3.55-3.85; T., 2.15-2.55. 

 Range. Whole of temperate North America. 



_ Range in North Carolina. Whole State at all seasons, but very erratic in its annual and seasonal 

 distribution and occurrence. 



FIG. 213. CEDAR WAXWING. 



"The Cedar Waxwing, also known as the 'Cedar-bird' and 'Cherry-bird,' goes in 

 flocks, except in the breeding season, being seemingly attracted to any particular 

 locality by the extra supply of food there. It feeds on all sorts of berries, and is 

 sometimes a nuisance as, when a big flock of these birds settle down in a trucker's 

 strawberry patch, there is likely to be a considerable diminution in the number of 

 salable berries before they get up again. On the wing they fly very much as if they 

 had been drilled, every bird seeming to move its wings in time with the rest, and a 

 flock of Cedar-birds compared with a flock of blackbirds, for instance, looks very 

 much like a company of regular soldiers by the side of a disorderly mob. 



