Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/194

Rh before me is a male in full plumage, who came to an untimely end by flying against a treacherous wire trellis. Nowhere except in the black frontlet, the tail, and wing tips does he show a distinet colour demarcation; all the rest of the feathers are tinted like a skilful blending of water-colours. The Cedar Waxwings only remain in pairs during the breeding-season (from late May until August), and at other times travel in flocks. It is only when in these flocks that they are conspicuous about the garden and old pastures; for when they are nesting they are very shy and stealthy in their movements.

Last May a flock of fifty or more lodged for a whole morning in a half-dead ash tree, near the house, so that seated at ease, I could focus my glass carefully, and watch them at leisure. They were as solemn as so many demure Quakers sitting stiflly in rows; once in a while they shifted about, and then seemed to do a great deal of apologizing for fancied jostlings. Their movements interested me greatly, until finally, to my surprise, I saw an illustration of the old story of their extreme politeness in passing food to one another, which I had always regarded as a pretty bit of fiction. A stout green worm (for they eat animal as well as vegetable food) was passed up and down a row of eight birds; once, twice it went the rounds, until half way on its third trip it became a wreck and dropped to the ground, so that no one enjoyed it, — a commentary, in general, upon useless ceremony. I could not help wondering, however, whether it was all disinterested politeness, or whether the worm was of a variety repugnant to Cedar-birds; as Hamlet put it, "Caviare to the general."