CEDAR WAXWING. 
171 
tneve in a stiffened posture, as if absolutely stupid. When taken up in the 
hand, they merely open their bill, without ever attempting to bite, and will 
suffer a person to carry them in the open hand, without endeavouring to 
make off. Their crest at such times is laid flat and close to the head. It is 
lowered or raised at the will of the bird, but more usually stands erect. 
Their plumage is silky. The females do not exhibit the waxen appendages 
on the wings so soon as the males ; but these appendages form no criterion as 
to the sex. I have seen males and females with them, both at the extremities 
of the scapulars and tail-feathers, seldom more than two or three attached to 
the latter, whilst there were five or six at the former. Very few of these 
birds remain the whole winter in the Middle States. 
Now, kind reader, can you give a reason why these birds are so tardy in 
laying their eggs and rearing their young ? It cannot be through want of 
fruit for the food of their progeny, as the young birds, being at first fed on 
insects, might continue to be so, at a season when these abound, and as the 
old birds themselves evince pleasure at seizing them on the wing on all 
occasions. 
I am informed by Mr. Townsend that this species is found about the 
Columbia river, where he procured specimens. Dr. Richardson speaks of 
it as not having been observed to the north of the 54th parallel. Mr. 
Drummond saw several small flocks on the south branch of the Saskatchewan, 
on the 27th of June. I found it very numerous in the Texas, in the early 
part of May. It is known to breed from Maryland to Nova Scotia, but 
none were seen by me in Labrador or Newfoundland. Dr. Brewer has 
sent me the following note respecting it. “This is almost, if not quite, the 
only one of our birds to which Wilson has been guilty of injustice. He has 
bran'ded it as a thief, and denied it the possession of any redeeming quality. 
That it does not sing I admit, but that it is not deserving of our protection 
is not true. I forbear entering any plea in its behalf on account of the beauty 
of its plumage, or its bold defence of its young, which I can attest from 
actual observation, but I must commend it for the benefit which it confers, 
in this part of the country, on the farmer, by destroying thousands of the 
destructive cankerworm. I have watched it for hours together feasting on 
that deadly enemy to our orchards. It is very abundant, but docs not breed 
until July. The eggs do not vary much in colour. It remains all the year 
round at Boston, and breeds abundantly in the orchards.” The length of 
the egg is 9 twelfths, its breadth 7 twelfths. 
Bombycilla carolinensis, Briss., vol. ii. p. 337. 
Cedar Bird, Amprfis americana, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 107. 
Bombycilla carolinensis, Bonap. Syn., p. 59. 
