494 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



Herrick ('02, p. 61) also gives a very interesting account of food 

 of the young birds as follows : 



" The young at this nest were visited and fed 47 times during an 

 interval of exactly ten hours and forty-seven minutes, on three 

 different days. On the last day they were fed on the average once 

 in ten minutes. The food consisted of choke cherries and red bird 

 cherries, varied with raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, to- 

 gether with insects, which, during the last days of life at the nest, 

 constituted about one quarter of the fare. At one half the number 

 of visits recorded fruit alone was served. From six to ten cherries 

 were brought in the gullet at a time, and once by count eleven blue- 

 berries. Feeding was effected almost always by regurgitation in 

 whole or part, and rarely was any food visible when the birds came 

 to the nest. Now and then, however, a bird would approach loaded 

 to the muzzle with a berry or insect in the bill to round out the 

 measure. Soft fruits like raspberries were crushed to a pulp, and 

 insects which are commonly served with berries came up covered 

 with saliva, and often in an unrecognizable state. The staple animal 

 food was grasshoppers and I have seen the large cicada or harvest 

 fly brought to the nest, but never dragon-flies, butterflies, or moths. 

 The cicada made a lively struggle for a few minutes ; it was placed 

 in one open throat after another and withdrawn eight different 

 times, before a gullet was found capable of the proper reaction time. 

 If a bird was slow he lost his chance, and another was tried. The 

 key was at last fitted to the lock, and the bruised and battered cicada 

 was taken in, but the old bird had not finished her task. She be- 

 gan tossing up her head and producing bird cherries. Then she 

 gave the nest a thorough renovation. In doing this the mother 

 often walks around the rim, and attends to each nestling in succes- 

 sion, sometimes even inspecting one bird more than once." 



Considering the abundance of Cedar-birds, the abundant fruit of 

 the cherry, and the great number of young trees in the burned and 

 cut-over areas (figure 145), it is very evident that this bird is one 

 of the most important tree planters in the burned lands of the 

 Adirondacks. Of course we must not overlook the fact, in fairness 

 to other birds, that many other species have much the same influence 

 in scattering seeds. It is also only fair to state that it is well estab- 

 lished that all the seeds scattered by birds are not of advantage to 

 the forest. For example, the seeds of many vines are scattered by 

 birds, such as wild grape, five-leaved ivy and poison ivy. Such 

 vines, when they thrive luxuriantly and reach the crowns of trees 

 are able to shut off the light and thereby injure or kill the tree. I 

 have observed many such instances where this kind of harm has 

 been done. During the heavy snow in the upper Hudson Valley in 

 December, 191 5, many trees were seen bent down by the weight of 

 the snow that accumulated on the screen of vines. In the Adiron- 

 dacks, where the snowfall is very heavy, I would suppose that such 

 injury would be of frequent occurrence. 



We may not look upon bird or fire cherry with much favor as a 

 forest tree, but such a tree and raspberry bushes produce a vegeta- 



