violence of the Kingbird, and play 



PERCHING BIRDS. |Lj jj J y ^g J *] 



' v ' 



around the rail, while the latter, 



every attempt, as he swept from side to 



him, but in vain." The Phebe-bird, which utters its 



pe-wee so continuously, is one of this family. There are 



eight species of Fly-catchers called Greenlets, which are 



familiar to this country. Their principal colors are vari- 



ous shades of green. One of them, from using bits of 



newspaper in making its nest, is sometimes called Poli- 



tician. 



253. The species of the family of Chatterers, or Wax- 

 wings, are few. The Bohemian Waxwing, Fig. 124, is 

 diffused over Europe, and ap- 

 pears in England, so that 'its 

 local name, accidentally given 

 it, is not appropriate. With 

 its silken tuft of feathers on its 

 head, and the general silken 

 appearance of its plumage, it 

 is a beautiful bird, but its song 

 is weak, as is that of all the 

 Chatterers. There is a corre- 

 sponding species pervading 

 North and a part of South 

 America, commonly called the 

 Cedar-bird, or Cherry-bird. At 

 the approach of winter the Ce- 

 dar-birds leave the far north 

 in companies of from twenty 

 to a hundred, and go as far south as the confines of the 

 equator. They reappear in the Northern and Eastern 

 States in April, before the cherries and mulberries, their 

 favorite fruits, ripen. Although they eat these fruits, they 

 more than repay us by devouring quantities of canker- 

 worms and other destructive insects. The Waxwings 

 have their name from a peculiar ornament on their 

 wings. Some of the feathers have appendages resem- 

 G 2 





Fig. 124. Bohemian Waxwing. 



