380 
AMEBIC AB AGBIOTJLTUBIST. 
[August, 
wonderfully elastic, and after it is pressed and 
placed in the neck of a bottle, it expands, and 
makes a perfectly tight stopper. Corks were 
formerly cut by hand, and cork-cutting is still a 
regular trade in some parts of Europe! A huge 
knife, much like a butcher’s cleaver, is used, and 
the cork being cut in proper pieces, the cutter 
forms a stopper by a skillful rolling of a piece 
against the edge of his large knife. Many corks 
are at present made by the cork-cutting machine. 
Besides serving for stoppers, cork is used for 
floats, soles of shoes, and various other purposes. 
The Bird that Takes the Cherries. 
Samrnie B., of Rhode Island, has, or rather his 
father has, several cherry trees, and as soon as the 
THE CEDAR BIRD. 
fruit is ripe, numerous birds come, regularly every 
year, and help themselves to the fruit. Master 
Sammie would like to know the name of the bird, 
and how to keep it away from the cherries. He 
describes it in such a manner that we are quite sure 
that he has reference to the Cedar Bird, also called 
Cherry Bird and Carolina Waxwing. We give a 
portrait of the bird, which is about two-thirds of 
the size of the Robin, but much more slender. At 
a little distance the bird appears to be mouse- 
colored, but a closer inspection shows that its gen¬ 
eral color is reddish olive, lighter on the breast, 
and the wings are ash-colored. The head bears a 
large crest, which is raised and lowered at pleas¬ 
ure. The forehead is very black, and this color 
passes back under the crest, being separated from 
that by a white line. There are other color mark¬ 
ings, but we need notice only the tips of several 
of the wing-feathers, which appear as if orna¬ 
mented with red sealing-wax. The tail is tipped 
with yellow. The engraving will allow our young 
friends to recognize the bird. It appears at the 
North very early in spring, remaining for a time in 
flocks of twenty or more. After a while they pair 
oil, and in June are fairly set up in housekeeping. 
They build in trees in the orchard, and on the bor¬ 
ders of woods. Stems of weeds, grass, small roots 
and the loose stringy bark of the grape vine, are 
used in building the nest, which is lined with finer 
materials. If pieces of twine or thread come in 
in their way, the birds find use for them. The 
eggs, four or five in number, are usually bluish, 
with spots of black. One brood appears late in 
June, and often another in August. It is a very 
interesting bird, and our young friends will take 
pleasure in watching its habits.—“ But it steals the 
cherries.” There is no denying the fact—it does. 
The only w T ay to prevent this is, to cover the tree 
witli a net, to keep the birds out, or to plant 
another cherry-tree, and have fruit enough for the 
birds. Probably one tree will yield fruit enough 
to more than su[iply all the 
birds in the neighborhood. But 
what are the birds doing before 
cherries are ripe, and after¬ 
wards ? Watch them, and you 
will see that they catch many 
insects. The young brood in 
the nest is fed entirely upon 
soft caterpillars, and the old 
birds themselves are very fond 
of canker-worms and other 
caterpillars. If they do take a 
few cherries, recollect that 
there may have been no cher¬ 
ries at all, did not the birds 
keep the insects away. Birds, 
like boys, are rarely all bad. 
You judge your school-fellows 
and playmates by both their 
good and their bad qualities. 
Why not judge the birds in 
the same way ? Several writers 
have described these birds as 
having peculiarly friendly rela¬ 
tions. Half a dozen or more 
will sit close together on a 
branch; suddenly one will dart 
off and catch an insect. In¬ 
stead of eating it himself, he 
politely passes it to the next 
bird. Number two, being equal¬ 
ly polite, passes it to number 
three, and the morsel goes from 
one to another, and the insect 
is passed back and forth sev¬ 
eral times, until one is per¬ 
suaded to swallow it. The en¬ 
graving shows the bird perched 
upon a branch of the Bitter¬ 
sweet, not the Climbing Bitter¬ 
sweet or Roxbury Waxwork, 
but a much more common 
plant, with soft orange and 
scarlet berries. These berries, 
which are said to be poison¬ 
ous to children, are a favorite 
food of the Cedar Birds ; they are quite abun¬ 
dant in autumn, when the birds frequent the plant. 
A Gigantic Water Bug. 
Mr. F. B. sends a sketch of a large bug, and 
writes us as follows: The other evening, when 
walking through Union Square, a huge bug fell at 
my feet. It was so large and unlike anything I had 
ever seen before, that I fancied it must be some 
entomological rarity, or at all events very much out 
of its latitude in New York city. 1 intended to 
have preserved it, but it made its escape. 
This insect is probably a member of the genus 
Bdostoma, which contains several kinds of large 
water bugs. Its appearance on land is due to the 
fact, that these insects sometimes leave the pond 
or stream at night, and take long flights. A gust 
of wind or a storm may bring them to the ground, 
to the astonishment of those who find them. These 
gigantic bugs are well provided with broad fringed 
hind legs for swimming, and a long sucker, used 
in securing food. Small fish are frequently killed 
with this weapon, and boys while bathing have 
sometimes unfortunately experienced its sharpness. 
A Paper House. 
Children can get a great deal of fun out of mak¬ 
ing paper houses. It will teach them how to use 
the shears, and to exercise their minds in calcu¬ 
lating length, etc. Figure 1 shows the form that 
the paper should be cut into, and also the places 
for the windows and 
doors, for a house 
seen in figure 2. If 
heavy paper is used, 
the house is a sub¬ 
stantial structure, and 
may be put up and 
taken down at pleas¬ 
ure. The size of the 
“ dwelling ” may vary 
according to that of 
the sheet of paper 
from which it is cut; but the relations of the 
various lines must, of course, remain the same. 
Sun-Printing on Apples. 
It would take a large volume to contain all the 
strange freaks of the silent sunbeams. A 
very neat test of the coloring power of sun¬ 
light is made by covering green fruit, such 
as apples, pears, etc., with tinfoil, cut to form 
letters or fancy figures. The thin layer of metal 
that excludes the sun’s rays may be fastened on 
with any adhesive substance. When the fruit is ripe 
and the cover is taken off, the part of the surface 
of the fruit that has been exposed will frequently 
be highly colored, while the other portion is a fine 
APPLE WITH INITIALS. 
green. The engraving shows an apple upon which 
some person has caused the sun’s rays to print the 
background of the initials of his name. In mark¬ 
ing fruit, it is best to select those sorts that nat¬ 
urally become highly colored when fully ripened. 
