THE CEDAR WAX WING 
By EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH 
The National Association of Audubon societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 48 
Among my earliest memories of bird-life is one that stands out clearly 
to this day. A Cedar Waxwing had built her nest on the low branch of 
an old apple-tree at the edge of the orchard, and when I, a little eight- 
year-old boy, came and peered in, there she sat in fear and trembling, her 
crest flattened, her exquisite plumage drawn close to her body and her 
eyes wild with fear; but she would not desert her charge, because the 
little ones beneath her tender breast were just breaking the shell. There 
A CEDAR WAXWING’S FAMILY 
was something fascinating about her lowered, flattened, almost serpentine 
head, with its black frontlet and the black bands enclosing her bright, 
startled eyes, as she snuggled down into her warm, leaf-sheltered nest. 
Alert and ready for instant flight, she held her place. It was my first 
glimpse of the home-life of a wild bird. 
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