32 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



There is no reason why it should not find food in culti- 

 vated, settled regions, as it does not live mainly on the 

 seeds of conifers, but eats all kinds of seeds, high and 

 low, and feeds its young on insects like its congener, the 

 Hawfinch of the Old World. This bird, the Kirschkern- 

 beisser of Germany, is an ornament to any landscape, 

 admired by the nature lover, but less popular with the 

 grower of cherries, which the bird likes more for the ker- 

 nel than for its meat. 



When speaking of the avian rovers likely to be met 

 with by St. Louisans in their winter walks, it would be 

 amiss to omit the Waxwings, of which there are two well- 

 defined species, one a rare winter visitant, the other a 

 common resident. The rare guest, the larger of the two spe- 

 cies, is the renowned Bohemian Waxwing, citizen of two 

 worlds, equally well known in the Old World and in the 

 New, because of circumpolar distribution. The smaller 

 species is the Cedar or Cherrybird, a 100 per cent Amer- 

 ican with no brothers or sisters in the Old World. For 

 the larger part of the year the Bohemian deserves its 

 name, for it leads the life of a gypsy, a man without a 

 country. In breeding time it retires to parts of Alaska 

 and the Canadian Northwest, but, wishing to live in com- 

 pany and feeding chiefly on wild berries, it has taken to 

 a habit of wandering, which carries it far away from its 

 nests in search of sufficient food. They may appear in 

 a particular locality one winter and not be seen again at 

 the same place for many years. It is probable that they 

 come to Missouri much oftener than we are aware of, for 

 it is by mere chance that we come across a troop of birds 

 of such erratic behavior. They must not be confounded 

 with our Oedarbird, which they resemble very much in 

 color, shape and habit, but which are about an inch 

 smaller, have no white on the wings, and white instead 

 of chestnut under tail feathers. 



Although a troop of Cedarbirds may be met with on 

 our walks in any month of the year, as a rule the bulk of 



