CHERRY BIRD. 297 



surroundings, and one by one they proceed to the chief business of their 

 lives. They eat until they can eat no longer, and are hardly able to 

 move. As Mr. Read says, they are "very polite, passing food to one 

 another." 



In the fall they feed on the berries of the gum tree and poke-berries ; 

 in the winter on the berries of the mountain ash and red cedar. I have 

 never seen them on the ground. With us they are less common in 

 winter. 



The nest of the Cedar Bird is built on the horizontal branch of a tree, 

 at varying distances from the ground. Sycamore trees furnish favorite 

 sites, but they often breed in orchards. The nest is large, composed of 

 twigs and vegetable fibres, and lined with grass. The eggs are usually 

 five, grayish-blue, varying from a light slate to stone color, blotched with 

 very dark brown and purplish. They measure about .85 by .65. While 

 nesting the old birds are very silent. 



In regard to "sealing-wax" tips to secondary quills of birds of this 

 genus, Dr. Coues (Birds of Col. Val., 452) says they " have been subjected 

 to chemical and microscopical examination by L. Stieda, and shown to be 

 the enlarged, hardened, and peculiarly modified prolongation of the shaft 

 itself of the feather, composed of central and peripheral substances, dif- 

 fering in the shape of the pigment cells, which contain abundance of 

 red and yellow coloring matter." My own opinion has always been that 

 these tips were both the end of the shaft and terminal laminae of the 

 vane, which were agglutinated together by a deposit of red coloring mat- 

 ter. These tips are sometimes found upon the tail-feathers of the Cedar 

 Bird. In a spring male in high plumage before me, they are on all the 

 feathers, not as well developed as on the secondaries, but the red coloring 

 matter on the shaft forms a streak which extends nearly the width of 

 the yellow tip of the tail-feathers, more distinct above than below. 

 The terminal laminte project at the end as if the feather had been 

 trimmed to a small triangular point. This triangle is red, and the laminae 

 more or less adherent and stifiF, though readily separated from each other 

 by slight pressure. On most of the feathers there is a narrow red edging 

 extending across the end of the feathers, and tbe under tail-coverts are 

 distinctly red-tipped. 



The tips to the secondaries vary in number and development .at differ- 

 ent times. They are most numerous and highly developed in spring, in 

 the latter part of summer often entirely wanting. They may be present 

 in young birds in first plumage. 



