( 2-27 ) 

 THE CEDAR BIRD. 



BOMBYCILLA CAROLINENSIS, BriSS. 

 PLATE XLIII. Male and Female. 



Louisiana affords abundance of food and pleasant weather to this 

 species, for nearly four months of the year, as the Cedar Birds reach 

 that State abovit the beginning of November, and retire towards the 

 Middle Districts in the beginning of March. The Holly, the Vines, 

 the Persimon, the Pride-of-China, and various other trees, supply them 

 with plenty of berries and fruits, on which they fatten, and become so 

 tender and juicy as to be sought by every epicure for the table. I have 

 known an instance of a basketful of these little birds having been for- 

 warded to New Orleans as a Christmas present. The donor, however, 

 was disappointed in his desire to please his friend in that city, for it was 

 afterwards discovered that the steward of the steamer, in which they were 

 shipped, made pies of them for the benefit of the passengers. 



The appetite of the Cedar Bird is of so extraordinary a nature as to 

 prompt it to devour every fruit or berry that comes in its way. In this 

 manner they gorge themselves to such excess as sometimes to be unable 

 to fly, and suffer themselves to be taken by the hand. Indeed I have 

 seen some which, although wounded and confined in a cage, have eaten 

 of apples until suffocation deprived them of life in the course of a few 

 days. When opened afterwards, they were found to be gorged to the 

 mouth. 



It is a beautiful bird, but without any song, even during the breed- 

 ing season, having only a note which it uses for the purpose of calling or 

 rallying others of its species. This note is feeble, and as it were lisping, 

 yet perfectly effectual, for when uttered by one in a flock within hearing 

 of another party, the latter usually check their flight, and alight pell- 

 mell on the same tree. 



Their flight is easy, continued, and often performed at a considerable 

 height. The birds move in close bodies, sometimes amounting to large 

 flocks, making various circumvolutions before they alight, and then com- 

 ing doAvn in such numbers together as to seem to be touching each other. 



At this particular moment, or while performing their evolutions, some 



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