2 HE. A’U'D°5U'B ON B Uti i ia 
tongue, which looked like a long flesh-colored wire, was repeatedly thrust 
out beyond its long slender bill and drawn back in a flash. 
The black-chinned hummingbird returned to Banning about March 27 
this year. This bird, one of the smallest of the hummers, I saw in a willow 
thicket, perched high on a dead branch, turning its head from side to 
side, looking, watching, as it always dces when on guard. Since it is 
customary for the males of many species of birds to return from the south 
ahead of the females, this one may have been watching for the arrival of a 
female, or it may have already found a mate and was standing guard. 
Many birds take part in some kind of nuptial flight or dance in the 
mating season. Near Dallas, Texas, I once saw the nuptial flight of the 
black-chinned hummer. The bird swung forward and back in almost a semi- 
circle, making a turn at each high point so swiftly I could not see how it 
was accomplished. Again and again it swung forward and back. I had 
been standing a little distance away, but in full view of the bird. When I 
took a step forward the bird vanished, but I did not see it leave. I now 
searched the bushes near which the bird had been swinging to find, if 
possible, the female before whom I knew the male had been exhibiting his 
flight ability. But she, too, had gone. 
Cedar waxwing's are lovely tan-colored birds with crests. They receive 
the name ‘‘waxwing” from the wax-like scarlet appendages at the tips of 
some of their wing feathers. They are, I think, our best-groomed birds, 
always looking as if they had just come from the beauty parlor. They 
subsist chiefly upon various kinds of berries, preferring wild to cultivated 
fruit. During March this year, there were vast numbers of waxwing'ss in 
our city, gorging themselves on the berries of the pyracantha. A magnifi- 
cent hedge of these bushes on North San Gorgonio Avenue, the top com- 
pactly covered with red berries, was almost completely stripped of its fruit 
in three days by a flock of over 700 cedar waxwings, aided by a few robins. 
I doubt if the owner of the hedge objected, for the birds brought added 
beauty and interest to the yard. 
When almond blossoms are about at their best, on the ground under 
the trees may be seen Oregon juncos, beautiful seed eaters with black heads 
and breasts, rusty backs, and with outer tail feathers white. Chipping 
sparrows are likely to be with them. Chipping sparrows have a rusty 
crown, a black line through the eye, over which is a white line. Both juncos 
and sparrows are great weed seed eaters and, therefore, farmer’s helpers. 
One may distinguish a seed eater by its cone-shaped bill; an insect eater 
by its sharply pointed bill. 
In the trees above, fiitting about among the almond blossoms in search 
of small insects, will likely be found several Audubon’s warblers, the only 
warblers in this locality in winter, in which season they are rather dull 
bluish-black and white little birds with yellow rumps which show distinctly 
as they fly. As spring approaches, Audubon’s warbler molts. In its nuptial 
plumage the male is a beautiful bird with five brilliant yellow patches— 
one on the crown, another on the throat, one on either side of the breast, 
and one on the rump. On the male, two large splashes of black appear on 
the breast. Warblers are said to be birds of the tree tops, but if the day is 
