THE 



L 



Vol.1. No. 1. 



Gainesville, Texas, MARcn, 1886. 



Publishecl Monthly, 

 50 Caats per Year. 



[For the Sunny South Oologiat.] 



THE WAXWIN(JS. 



( Bomhycillidae,) 



The Waxwings are a small but very ir.ter- 

 esting family of birds, only two species are 

 known to visit Canada, or perhaps the whole 

 of North America. These are the well- 

 known "Cherry -bird," and the Northern, or 

 Bohemian Wax-wing. These species are 

 also sometimes called Chatterers, but this is 

 a strange misnomer, as they are among the 

 most silent of our birds, their only notes 

 being a kind of wheezy whistle. The term 

 ** Wax-wing," however, has been applied to 

 them from the fact that the wings are pro- 

 vided with a curious horny appendage of 

 the color of red sealing-wax. The young 

 are without these wing-ornaments, and have 

 a streaked plumage. If taken young from 

 the nest, and provided with proper food, 

 they are easily raised, and become pleasing- 

 pets. The Cherry-bird usually visit this 

 country about the first day of June, but 

 the northern chatterers visits us only in the 

 winter season. 



THE CHERRY BIRD. 



{Ampelis Cedrorum.) 

 This beautiful and widely diffused species 

 Is, as its name implies, very partial to ripe 

 cherries and other small fruit, and it is there- 

 fore no friend to the market-gardener. It 

 is also in some places called the Cedar bird, 

 from its fondness to low cedar-groves, 

 where it often resorts for the purposes of 

 shelter, nesting, and feeding on the berries 

 of the soft-wood* In. its nesting habits it 

 resembles the King-bird, but it exhibits none 

 of the warlike propensities that characterise 

 that species, but, on the contrary, apart 

 from its fruit -loving nature, it is one of the 

 most peaceful and innocent of creatul'es. 

 Its love for ripe cherries is however so strong 

 that it will risk its life almost anytime, in 

 order to obtain these tempting dainties, and 

 at such times it has little dread of the sound 

 of the shot gun, or fear of a scare crow. Be- 



sides cherries, it also feeds on strawberries, 

 raspberries and currants; and when these are 

 in season it is a continual source of annoy- 

 ance to the small fruit grower. It frequents 

 most of the temperate regions of North 

 America, being found from Mexico to the 

 northern regions of Ontario, and is noted 

 for the silky softness and beautiful shading 

 of its plumage, gentleness of disposition, in- 

 nocence of character, extreme sociability, 

 love of freedom, and constant desire of 

 wandering. Its flight is easy, sometimes 

 lofty, and it moves about in companies of 

 from four to eight, and when about to alight 

 often makes several turnings before doing so. 

 Both sexes are alike in color of plumage, the 

 head of each being ornamented with a crest. 

 The (Jherry bird is migratory, coming to us 

 about the first of June, and though nesting 

 in July and August, generally departs again 

 soon after the harvest is over in September, 

 and though it feeds much on fruit and ber- 

 ries, it also destroys great numbers of insects, 

 especially caterpillars, which infest fruit 

 trees; this, in some measure, making com- 

 pensation for the mischief it commits among 

 the products of the garden. After feeding 

 they will sometimes sit in little clusters on a 

 projecting branch, dressing their plumage; 

 and this social trait in their character is 

 taken advantage of by wanton sportsmen, 

 who, by shooting at them at such times, 

 makes sad havoc in their numbers. During 

 their sojourn in Canada they frequent gar- 

 dens, orchards, beaver-meadows, low grounds 

 where there is a second growth of willow 

 and black-ash, low ceder groves, and the 

 margins of the woods in the old settled dis- 

 tricts, but they do not penetrate into the 

 woods, and are seldom observed in the im- 

 mediate backwoods. Their favorite nesting 

 places are orchards, or among low second 

 growth black-ash, or maple, and the nest is 

 usually placed in a fork, or on a branch, and 

 composed of a variety of materials, as wool, 

 bit of rags, bramble, stalks of fine dry weeds, 

 grasses, fibers of bark, ravelings of rape, and 



