140 
CEDAR-BIRD. 
and it is generally the eighth or tenth of that month before 
they begin to build. These last are curious circumstances, which 
it is difficult to account for, unless by supposing, that incubation 
is retarded by a scarcity of suitable food in spring; berries and 
other fruit being their usual fare. In May, before the cherries 
are ripe, they are lean, and little else is found in their stomachs 
than a few shrivelled cedar berries, the refuse of the former 
season, and a few fragments of beetles and other insects, which 
do not appear to be their common food; but in June, while cherries 
and strawberries abound, they become extremely fat ; and about 
the tenth or twelfth of that month, disperse over the country in 
pairs to breed; sometimes fixing on the cedar, but generally choos- 
ing the orchard for that purpose. The nest is large for the size of 
the bird, fixed in the forked or horizontal branch of an apple tree, 
ten or twelve feet from the ground; outwardly, and at bottom, 
is laid a mass of coarse dry stalks of grass, and the inside is lined 
wholly with very fine stalks of the same material. The eggs are 
three or four, of a dingy bluish white, thick at the great end, ta- 
pering suddenly, and becoming very narrow at the other; marked 
with small roundish spots of black of various sizes and shades; 
and the great end is of a pale dull purple tinge, marked likewise 
with touches of various shades of purple and black. About the last 
week in June the young are hatched, and are at first fed on in- 
sects and their larvse; but as they advance in growth, on berries 
of various kinds. These facts I have myself been an eye witness 
to. The female, if disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a 
considerable distance; no notes of wailing or lamentation are 
heard from either parent, nor are they even seen, notwithstand- 
ing you are in the tree examining the nest and young. These 
nests are less frequently found than many others; owing, not 
only to the comparatively few numbers of the birds, but to the 
remarkable muteness of the species. The season of love, which 
makes almost every other small bird musical, has no such effect 
on them; for they continue at that interesting period as silent 
as before. 
