In fact the waxwings are inclined to be lazy, except when they are nesting; they are the most deliberate creatures one can find, but very foppish and neat in their dress.
Never will you find a particle of dust on their silky plumage, and the pretty red dots on their wings and tails look always as bright as if kept in a bandbox.

They have, indeed, just reason to be proud of themselves, for they are very beautiful.
Hunters by scores were after them with bag and gun mercilessly killing them for the New York millinery houses.

The slaughter was terrible, and made more easy for the hunters by reason of the poor birds flocking together so closely in such large numbers when they alighted in circles as is their habit.

As they came down in dense droves to get their food, the red dots on their wing tips almost overlapping those of their fellows, dozens were slain by a single shot.

They were very fond of the berries of the cedar trees, and after the other foods were gone they hovered there in great numbers.