190 
The Cedar Waxwing 
Next year was a canker-worm year, and all through the orchard the 
little inch- worm (geometrid) caterpillars began to cut holes in the leaves. 
Then came the Waxwings in flocks, and there they stayed, often whisper- 
ing to one another and always catching worms. Such gormandizers as 
they were ! They ate until they could eat no more, only to sit about on 
the branches or play with one another awhile, and then eat again. The 
canker-worms stripped a few of the old trees, but the 
Destroying Waxwings cleared most of them and saved the leaves ; 
an er-worms SQ we ^id nQt i ose our a ppl es> When the cherries 
were ripe, these birds always found them. They stayed in the cherry- 
trees with the same persistence that they showed in their work with the 
canker-worms. They have a habit, when satiated, of sitting together, 
sometimes five or six on the same limb, and at such a time I have seen 
a cherry or a caterpillar passed from one to another until it had passed 
up and down the line before any would take it. 
Who can describe the marvelous beauty and elegance of this bird? 
What other is dressed in a robe of so delicate and silky a texture? Those 
shades of blending beauty — velvety black brightening into fawn, melting 
browns, shifting saffrons, quaker drabs, pale blue and slate, with trim- 
mings of white and golden yellow, and little red appendages on the wing- 
quills not found in any other family of birds — all, combined with its 
graceful form, give the bird an appearance of elegance 
In Silken Attire and distinction peculiarly its own. Its mobile, erectile 
crest expresses every emotion. When lying loose and 
low upon the head it signifies ease and comfort. Excitement or surprise 
erect it at once, and in fear it is pressed flat. 
The Cedar Waxwing breeds very late, raising its young in July or 
August, when wild cherries and blueberries furnish them an abundant 
supply of food. In New England, the earliest nests sometimes have eggs 
by the second week in June. The breeding-season is at its height by the 
last of July. Sometimes a pair raises two broods, and a few have young 
in the nest in September. The nesting-site varies greatly. The apple- 
tree is commonly chosen, also the Virginia juniper or red cedar, where- 
fore the bird is commonly called Cedar-bird in most parts of the country, 
and sometimes Cherry-bird. 
Sometimes the nest will be placed on a low limb not more than 
five or six feet from the ground, sometimes in tall elms or maples, more 
rarely in the top of a birch or of some pasture-tree. Both male and 
female engage in nest-building; the male often brings nesting-material, 
while the female fashions it into shape. 
The nest varies as much in material and construction as in situation. 
In the South it is comparatively small and compact, built mainly of 
twigs, grass-culms, weed-stalks and leaves, and lined 
Architecture with fine grasses and grass-roots. In the farming 
regions of the North the nest is often a bulky struc- 
ture, composed largely of the stems of weeds and grasses, a few twigs. 
