72 CEDAR BIRD. 
Nor are they easily intimidated by the presence of Mr. Scarecrow 
for I have seen a flock deliberately feasting on the fruit of a loaded 
cherry-tree, while on the same tree one of these guardian angels, and a 
very formidable one too, stretched his stiffened arms, and displayed his 
dangling legs, with all the pomposity of authority. At this time of the 
season most of our resident birds, and many of our summer visitants, 
are sitting, or have young; while, even on the Ist af June, the eggs 
in the ovary of the female Cedar Bird are no larger than mustard seed ; 
and it is generally the 8th or 10th of that month before they begin to 
build. These last are curious circumstances, which it is difficult to 
account for, unless by supposing that incubation is retarded by a 
scarcity of suitable food in spring, berries and other fruit being their 
usual fare. In May, before the cherries are ripe, they are lean, and 
little else is found in their stomachs than a few shrivelled cedar ber- 
ries, the refuse of the former season, and a few fragments of beetles 
and other insects, which do not appear to be their common food ; 
but in June, while cherries and strawberries abound, they become 
extremely fat; and, about the 10th or 12th of that month, disperse 
over the country in pairs to breed; sometimes fixing on the cedar, but 
cel choosing the orchard for that purpose. The nest is large 
or the size of the bird, fixed in the forked or horizontal branch of an 
apple-tree, ten or twelve feet from the ground; outwardly, and at 
bottom, is laid a mass of coarse, dry stalks of grass, and the inside is 
lined wholly with very fine stalks of the same material. The eggs 
are three or four, of a dingy bluish white, thick at the great end, 
tapering suddenly, and becoming very narrow at the other; marked 
with small, roundish spots of black of various sizes and shades; and 
the great end is of a pale, dull, purple tinge, marked likewise with 
touches of various shades of purple and black. About the last week 
in June the young are hatched, and are at first fed on insects and 
their larve ; but, as they advance in growth, on berries of various 
kinds. These facts I have myself been an eye-witness to. The 
female, if disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a considerable 
distance ; no notes of wailing or lamentation are heard from either 
parent, nor are they even seen, notwithstanding you are in the tree 
examining the nest and young. ‘These nests are less frequently 
found than many others, owing, not only to the comparatively few 
numbers of the birds, but to the remarkable muteness of the species. 
The season of love, which makes almost every other small bird 
musical, has no such effect on them; for they continue, at that inter- 
esting period, as silent as before. 
This species is also found in Canada, where it is called Recollet, 
probably, as Dr. Latham supposes, from the color and appearance of 
its crest resembling the hood of an order of friars of that denomination. 
It has also been met with by several of our voyagers on the north-west 
coast of America, and appears to have an extensive range. 
Almost all the ornithologists of Europe persist in considering this 
bird as a variety of the European Chatterer, (4. garrulus,) with what 
justice or propriety a mere comparison of the two will determine.* 
* The small American species, figured by our author, was by many considered 
as only the American variety of that which was thought to belong to Europe and 
