CEDAR BIRD. 
267 
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 tinge, marked likewise wdtti 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 kinds. These facts I 
have myself been an eye witness to. The female, if 
disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a consider- 
able distance ; no notes of wailing or lamentation are 
heard from either parent, nor are they even seen, not- 
withstanding 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. 
This species is also found in Canada, where it is 
called' recollet , probably, as Dr Latham supposes, from 
the colour and appearance of its crest resembling the 
hood of an order of friars of that denomination ; it has 
also been met with by several of our voyagers on the 
northwest coast of America, and appears to have an 
extensive range. 
Almost all the ornithologists of Europe persist in 
