JULY, 1900. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
193 
nest containing four of the cow-bird eggs and the eggs of the 
owner were lying on the ground beneath, mostly broken. I have 
repeatedly found the eggs of this unbidden guest in the nests of 
the wood thrush, brown thrush, song sparrow, robin, chipping 
sparrow, field sparrow, red eyed vireo and yellow warbler, the 
last two almost sure to contain them. Eight or ten years ago I 
was fortunate enough to discover one of the two-storied nests of 
the yellow warbler which is so often written about but so seldom 
seen. The lower story contained an egg of the warbler with two 
of the cow bird, then another story built on top of this contain- 
mg two of the cow bird and one of the owner. I have one in 
my possession only partly completed. The lower part was not 
finished before the parasite deposited an egg, the second part be- 
ing started but left unfinished. 
The Ruby Throated Humming Bird. (Trochiliis colubris.) 
Strange as it may seem this humming bird arrives as early as 
the last week in April. I have seen them as early as the twenty- 
fourth, visiting the flowers of Salix discolor, probably after 
minute insects and perhaps the pollen which is so abund- 
ant. It may be of interest to some to note that our common red 
squirrel is exceedingly fond of eating these blossoms. 
The Cedar Waxwing. (Ampelis cedronim.) This species 
in the spring has a decided liking for the buds of the soft maple. 
1 have often seen them carefully insert their bills in the partially 
opened buds and apparently extracting something therefrom, 
probably the more tender inner parts. They also detach the buds 
and pick them to pieces and many will swallow the buds entire, 
the ground below some of the large trees being literally covered 
with mutilated buds. The trees do not seem to suffer in the least 
from this treatment, the foliage afterward coming in ordinary 
abundance. 
These birds also seem to take to the berries of the mountain 
ash more ravenously at this time also. In a few hours they will 
entirely denude a tree of its berries, which have remained un- 
touched all the previous winter. 
The Magnolia Warbler. (Dendroeca maculosa.) This 
warbler when feeding mostly confines himself to the upper 
and outer parts of a shrub, fluttering two or three feet into the 
air after some passing insect, returning, jumping here and there, 
then into the air again, always seemingly in a flurry of excite- 
ment. 
The Black and White Warbler, (Mniotilta varia.), on the 
contrary, methodically and deliberately pursues his way, almost 
in silence, up and down, over and around the limbs and stems, sys- 
