Plate LII. 



AMPELIS CEDRORUM-Cedar Wax-wing. 



The Cedar Wax-wing, Cedarbird, or Cherrybird, as this species is variously called, is usually seen 

 between the months of November and June, inclusive, in flocks of a dozen to fifty, flying high in the 

 air or perched upon some friendly tree. It is emphatically gregarious and nomadic, except during the 

 period in which it is engaged in rearing its young, which is any time from June until October. As soon 

 as mated, the pairs leave the flock and go in search of a suitable locality for the nest. It often hap- 

 pens thats everal pairs build in close proximity to each other, but on different trees. Only one brood is 

 reared during the season. Although seen in large flocks most of the year, but few seem to breed 

 within the limits of the State; at least, its nests are uncommon and unequally distributed in the terri- 

 tory with which I am familiar. 



LOCALITY : 



A medium sized tree near a dwelling, either in town or country, is usually selected for the site of 

 the nest. An apple-tree or pear-tree is a great favorite; but not infrequently a cedar, maple, wild-cherry, 

 or some ornamental tree in a lawn is chosen. The nest is rarely built in woods, unless about the border, 

 as the birds prefer open and cultivated ground. The nest is said, by some writers, to be occasionally 

 built in a low bush. I have never observed it in this situation, but have several times met with it in 

 a stunted elm or other dwarfed tree along the wooded banks of the Scioto river. 



POSITION : 



The nest is usually saddled on a horizontal or slightly inclined limb, at a point where a horizontal 

 branch puts forth or at a bifurcation of the limb; and, in either case, is generally supported firmly at 

 the sides by a number of upright twigs from the limb. Sometimes it is built in a perpendicular crotch 

 formed by two or more branches. Its distance from the ground is ordinarily between ten and fifteen feet, 

 but occasionally it is as low as three feet or as high as twenty or twenty-five feet. 



MATERIALS: 



The materials which enter into the construction of the nest are very numerous, and often quite dis- 

 similar in different nests, according to the fancy of the builder for this or that material, or accordino- to 

 the locality of the site. Rootlets, weed-stems, tendrils, vegetable-fibres, grass, green and dead leaves, leaf- 

 stems, strings, paper, and rags, are usually found in greater or less proportions. The material is mostly 

 quite soft and tine for the kind, and the foundation, superstructure, and lining, differ but little in composi- 

 tion. Perhaps, as a rule, the lining contains more thread-like rootlets than any other part of the struc- 

 ture. The exterior is rough and untidy in appearance, and at once suggests the roving and careless 

 disposition of the builder. The external diameter measures from four to live inches, and its depth about 



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