238 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
“ I am sorry they are so greedy/’ said Clara, quite 
mournfully, “ this one in the picture looks so soft 
and pretty.” 
“It is difficult to believe it,” replied her governess, 
“ but when such men as Audubon and Wilson, who 
spent much of their time in observing the habits of 
birds, assert anything as a fact, it cannot very well 
be doubted. Wilson says that in October they feed 
on the berries of the sour gum and red cedar, of 
which last they are immoderately fond ; and thirty 
or forty may sometimes be seen fluttering among 
the branches of one small cedar tree, plucking off 
the berries. 
“ But worse than this : when the early cherries 
appear the cedar-birds, with unerring judgment, 
select the best and ripest of the fruit. ‘Nor are 
they easily intimidated by the presence of Mr. Scare- 
crow, 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 for- 
midable one too — stretched his stiffened arms and 
displayed his dangling legs with all the pomposity 
of authority.’ 
“ It does not seem to avail them that, ‘ to pay the 
gardener in advance for the small portion of his 
crop which they intend to appropriate to their own 
use, they now begin to rid his trees of those destruc- 
