286 



THE CEDAR WAXWING. 



eyes upon him — those marvelous melting browns, those shifting saffrons and 

 Quaker drabs, those red sealing-wax tips on the wing-quills (he is canning 



cherries, you see, and co 

 and carry the vision to 

 ries. Or if there are 

 breadth of mosquito- 



ded). , Feast your eyes, I say, 



you, and a few lesscher- 

 you both, draw a decent 

 the tree, and absolve 

 your soul 

 of murder- 

 ous intent. 

 Remember, 

 too, if you 

 require self- 

 i u s t i fi c a - 

 tion, that 

 earlier in the season he 

 devoured an enormous 

 quantity of canker 

 worms and other simi- 

 lar pests, so that he has 

 a clear right to a share 

 in the fruit of his labors. 

 The Cedar -bird being 

 so singularly endowed 

 with the gift of beauty, is 

 denied the gift of song. He 

 is the most nearly voiceless 

 of any of the American 

 Oscines, his sole note be- 

 ing a high-pitched, sibilant 

 Indeed, so high-pitched is this extraordinary note, that I find several 

 of my friends cannot hear it at all, even when the Waxwings are squeaking all 

 about them. It is an almost uncanny spectacle, that of a company of \'Vaxwings 

 sitting aloft in some leafless tree early in spring, erect, immovable, like soldiers 

 on dress parade, but complaining to each other in that faint, penetrating mono- 

 tone. It is as tho you had come upon a company of the Immortals, high-re- 

 moved, conversing of matters too recondite for human ken, and who- survey you 

 the while with Olympian disdain. You steal away from the foot of the tree 

 with a chastened sense of having encountered something not quite under- 

 standable. 



The dilatory habits of these birds are well shown in their nesting, which 

 they put off until late June or July for no apparent reason. They build a thick- 

 walled, well-set structure of weed-stalks, roots, grass, etc., oftenest in orchard 



Tabcn in 

 McCoiuiclsi'i 



Photo 

 bjV the 

 Author. 



A PARTNERSHIP .\FFA]R. 



MORRTS FURNISHED THE RAGS AND THE CEDAR-BIRD 

 DID THE WORK. 



squeak 



