BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
259 
found in flocks, which in many sections seem most numerous in May 
and the first two weeks in June. The somewhat flat and rather bulky 
nest, composed of small twigs, roots, grasses, bits of string, feathers or 
other soft materials, is built in trees in groves and orchards, particularly 
apple orchards. The eggs, usually five in number, are dull bluish-gray 
spotted and blotched with black and brownish. They measure about 
.90 by .65 of an inch. Cedar-birds fly in compact flocks, and when they 
alight huddle close together on the limbs and twigs. They apparently 
prefer to light on dead branches of trees, and in the spring, or when they 
visit cherry trees, this habit is frequently taken advantage of by the 
observing farmer, who fastens to a long pole a dead branch, with numer¬ 
ous small twigs, and fixes it in the fruit tree so that the entire branch 
will project above the tree top, then stationing himself near by he can 
shoot the birds as they alight, without injuring, with shot, the tree or its 
1 ripening fruit. Some few years ago two farmers, residing near West 
| Chester, killed one day in this manner over one hundred and fifty Cherry- 
I birds, shooting from seven to twenty at each discharge. These birds, 
as their common names would signify, subsist chiefly on a fruit and 
berry diet; the many varieties of cultivated cherries, mulberries, whor¬ 
tleberries, wild grapes, berries of the gum, cedar and mountain ash, also 
the fruit of the poke plant, are its favorite food. In the spring they 
often visit orchards and gardens to feed on insects or devour portions 
of the apple blossoms. Cherry-birds are very expert flycatchers and 
they also destroy great numbers of caterpillars. Nuttall writing of this 
species says although a small portion of the gardener’s cherry crop is 
destroyed “ they fail not to assist in ridding his trees of more deadly 
enemies which infect them, and the small caterpillars, beetles and vari¬ 
ous insects now constitute their only food ; and for hours at a time they 
may be seen feeding on the all-despoiling canker-worms, which infest 
our apple trees and elms. On these occasions, silent and sedate, after 
plentifully feeding, they sit dressing their feathers, in near contact on 
the same branch, to the number of five or six; and, as the season of 
selective attachment approaches, they may be observed pluming each 
other, and caressing with the most gentle fondness. This friendly trait 
is carried so far that an eye-witness assures me he has seen one among 
a row of these birds seated upon a branch dart after an insect and offer 
it to his associate when caught, who very disinterestedly passed it to 
the next; and, each delicately declining the offer, the morsel has pro¬ 
ceeded backwards and forwards before it was appropriated.” 
Family LANIIDiE. Shrikes. 
THE SHRIKES. 
Two species and one geographical “race ” of this family occur in Pennsylvania. 
The Northern Shrike, although recorded by Dr. W. P. Turnbull and some few other 
observers as a summer resident “on the mountain ridges of the Alleghanies,” does 
