Plate LII. 
AMPELIS CEDRO RUM— Cedar Wax-wing. 
The Cedar Wax-wing, Cedarbird, or Cherrybird, as this species is variously called, is usually seen 
between the months of November and June, inclusive, in flocks of a dozen to fifty, flying high in the 
air or perched upon some friendly tree. It is emphatically gregarious and nomadic, except during the 
period in which it is engaged in rearing its young, which is any time from June until October. As soon 
as mated, the pairs leave the flock and go in search of a suitable locality for the nest. It often hap- 
pens thats everal pairs build in close proximity to each other, but on different trees. Only one brood is 
reared during the season. Although seen in large flocks most of the year, but few seem to breed 
within the limits of the State; at least, its nests are uncommon and unequally distributed in the terri- 
tory with which I am familiar. 
LOCALITY : 
A medium sized tree near a dwelling, either in town or country, is usually selected for the site of 
the nest. An apple-tree or pear-tree is a great favorite; but not infrequently a cedar, maple, wild-cherry, 
or some ornamental tree in a lawn is chosen. The nest is rarely built in woods, unless about the border, 
as the birds prefer open and cultivated ground. The nest is said, by some writers, to be occasionally 
built, in a low bush. I have never observed it in this situation, but have several times met with it in 
a stunted elm or other dwarfed tree along the wooded banks of the Scioto river. 
POSITION : 
The nest is usually saddled on a horizontal or slightly inclined limb, at a point where a horizontal 
branch puts forth or at a bifurcation of the limb ; and, in either case, is generally supported firmly at 
the sides by a number of upright twigs from the limb. Sometimes it is built in a perpendicular crotch 
formed by two or more branches. Its distance from the ground is ordinarily between ten and fifteen feet, 
but occasionally it is as low as three feet or as high as twenty or twenty-five feet. 
MATERIALS: 
The materials which enter into the construction of the nest are very numerous, and often quite dis- 
similar in different nests, according to the fancy of the builder for this or that material, or according to 
the locality of the site. Rootlets, weed-stems, tendrils, vegetable-fibres, grass, green and dead leaves, leaf- 
stems, strings, paper, and rags, are usually found in greater or less proportions. The material is mostly 
quite soft and fine for the kind, and the foundation, superstructure, and lining, differ but little in composi- 
tion. Perhaps, as a rule, the lining contains more thread-like rootlets than any other part of the struc- 
ture. The exterior is. rough and untidy in appearance, and at once suggests the roving and careless 
disposition of the builder. The external diameter measures from four to five inches, and its depth about 
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