CEDAR-BIRD 



109 



abound they become extremely fat ; and about the tenth or twelfth 

 of that month, disperse over the country in pairs to breed ; some- 

 times fixing on the cedar, but generally choosing the orchard for 

 that purpose. The nest is large for 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 larvse ; 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 interesting period 

 as silent as before. 



This species is also found in Canada, where it is called EecoU 

 let, probably, as Dr. Latham supposes, from the color and appear- 

 ance 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 exten- 

 sive range. 



Almost all the ornithologists of Europe persist in considering 

 this bird as a variety of the European Chatterer (A. garrulus), with 



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