THE IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



83 



birds their roving- disposition for 

 a purpose to awaken in rr^an a 

 desire to know, who these hand- 

 some strang-ers are (with crested 

 head and curious flattened ap- 

 pendag"es the color of brig-ht red 

 sealing- wax, on wing-s and tail) 

 finding- the life and habits of 

 these birds interesting-, it will cre- 

 ate a desire to know more of our 

 birds; tell me fellow Students, 

 what is there that can make your 

 heart more g-lad than a ramble 

 throug-h the woods, and o'er the 

 fields studying- the birds you love 

 so well in their favorite haunts. 



Coues, truly says of nature, 

 '•That Fairer mistress never 

 swayed the heart of man." {C- F. 

 Henning-. ) "This species has 

 never been taken by me, though 

 I have a:counts of it being- taken 

 m Mahaska Co. A specimen is in 

 the Colleg-e Museum at Ames, 

 from Story Co."{;W. A. Bryan.) 



"Very rare winter visitant in 

 Jackson Co. Have seen none for 

 several yearsv Formerl}' used to 

 see a few nearly every winter," 

 (H. J. Gidding-s. ) "A specimen, 

 the only one seen in thirty years 

 observation, and the first I know 

 of being- taken in Van Buren Co., 

 was taken by me March 16, 1892, 

 It was feeding- on some cedars 

 with a flock of Cedar birds. "(Wm. 

 Savag-e. ) "These birds have 

 been taken at Iowa City at diff- 

 erent times, but have failed to put 

 in an appearance the past two 

 winters. I have never heard of 



their capture at Burling^ton." 

 (Paul Bartsch.) " I have never 

 met it in Dallas Co. "(J. E. L.) 



619. Ampelis cedrorum. (Vieili.) 



CEDAR WAXWING. 



"I have at times found these 

 birds quite common at Burling-ton 

 and have also collected their eg-g-s. 

 On May 26, 1888 I found a nest 

 with one eg-g-. Not recognizing- 

 this and not seeing- the owner I 

 decided to wait for her appear- 

 ance. This was not very long-, 

 for a flock of Waxwing-s soon 

 made their appearance. One sep- 

 erating- from the flock flew 

 to the nest and deposited 

 eg-g- No. 2, then rejoined 

 the flock and left with them. 

 This nest and the second that I 

 found were located in a crotch of 

 an apple tree. All the rest were 

 taken in willows bordering- the 

 Mississippi. The nest, in every 

 case, was quite bulky, composed 

 of twig-s, and lined with wool and 

 cotton from cotton-wood trees. 

 The eg-g-s were alwa3-s four. 



The food of these birds during- 

 the winter consists of apples, and 

 the berries of the black g-um, 

 mountain ash and cedar. While 

 cag-ed thej^ prefer chopped apples 

 to anything- else. They are a 

 very sociable bird, and not of a 

 quarrelsome disposition, as I huve 

 seen as many as seven perched 

 side by side on one little limb." 



