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CEDAR BIRD. 
great havoc among the early cherries, selecting the best and 
ripest of the fruit. Nor are they easily intimidated by the 
presence of Mr Scarecrow ; for I have seen a flock deliberately 
feasting on the fruit of a loaded cherry tree, while on the 
same tree one of these guardian angels , and a very formidable 
one too, stretched his stiffened arms, and displayed his dangling 
legs, with all the pomposity of authority. At this time of the 
season most of our resident birds, and many of our summer 
visitants, are sitting, or have young; while, even on the 1st 
of June, the eggs in the ovary of the female Cedar Bird are no 
larger than mustard seed ; and it is generally the 8th or 10th 
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 
10th or 12th of that month, disperse over the country in pairs 
to breed ; sometimes fixing on the cedar, but generally 
choosing 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, tapering 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 ting'e, 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 insects and their 
larvae ; but, as they advance in growth, on berries of various 
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