154 Field and Forest Rambles. 



with his wings outstretched, as he coquets in a fantastic way 

 round his mate, who may be admiring his gambols, and little 

 red bells, as they tremble with the vibration of the quills. How 

 the Bohemian waxwing received the name of Chatterer I 

 cannot say, for beyond a soft " cheep " I have not heard the 

 cedar bird utter another sound * As has been noticed in 

 connection with the distribution of plants through birds, 

 dejections the cedar bird no doubt also contributes, as it 

 swallows the choke cherries and other fruits entire ; moreove 

 its migrations are rapid, coming in suddenly and departing 

 with rapidity-— even, as I have observed in some cases, before 

 its young have left the nest. 



The Crow Blackbird (Q. versicolor), like the Rusty 

 Blackbird (S. ferrugineus), arrives very regularly as to 

 time; the former, like the swallows, is partial to certain 

 breeding-places, preferring tall pine groves, to which possibly 

 the same birds return year after year. Whether from the effects 

 of climate or the failure of food (I believe the former), it leaves 

 suddenly as soon as the broods are ready for the journey ; but as 

 its wings are not well adapted for rapid and continuous flights/ 

 it takes its time in going south ; hence, as I have often 

 observed, large flocks are seen journeying across the tops of 

 the forest trees in September, flying only short distances, but 

 steadily moving southwards at a slow rate as compared with 

 the sharp-pointed winged birds — to wit, swallows and hawks, 

 which seldom loiter on the way. 



* In the Report on the Zoology of Massachusetts for 1838, p. 291, the 

 Rev. W. O. B. Peabody describes a rather strange parrot-like habit of thi 

 bird ; he says : " They may not unfrequently be seen sitting in a row, when 

 one who has found a favourite morsel of fruit hands it to his next neigh- 

 bour ; he, instead of eating it, passes it on, and thus it goes round, each 

 one declining it with a Parisian nod of his tall cap that is perfectly irre- 

 sistible." I apprehend most observers have failed to notice this piece of 

 eccentricity ; and allowing something like what is stated in the first part 

 to be near the truth, I must doubt the "Parisian nod." Who knows into 

 how many educational works this story, evidently more fanciful than real, 

 has been copied ? 



