94 



Bird - Lore 



of a tall maple. A few days later two of 

 my neighbors reported that they had seen 

 a single one in the same vicinity. About 

 the middle of January a report came to 

 me that a flock of seven or eight had been 

 seen in the Sherman Hill section of the 

 town, and on January 25 and 26 I saw 

 a flock of about the same number feeding 

 on sumach berries in a vacant lot just in 

 the rear of my yard. I did not see them 

 again until February 16, when a flock of 

 about ten birds was seen in a black locust 

 at the end of my garden. A short article 

 was published in one of our local papers 

 and since then several reports have come 

 to me of others having seen these birds. 

 Pine Siskins were seen here during 

 November, but seem to have passed on. 

 Redpolls are common. In the course of a 

 two-hours walk this afternoon, I saw 

 probably 100. Two Canadian Nuthatches 

 have been daily visitors to our suet since 

 the latter part of January. — R. C. Cas- 

 KEN, Morristown, N. J. 



Cardinal in Rhode Island 



During the past week the Cardinal has 

 been reported as seen at Warren, R. I. 

 So far as I am able to ascertain this is the 

 first record of the state. 



The bird is a female and is in and 

 around the grounds of the home of Mrs. 

 Albert E. Leach, who first saw it on 

 Tuesday, January 23, at about 3 p.m. At 

 that time she had it under observation 

 with glasses for about five minutes. On 

 January 29, Mrs. Leach, with three 

 others. Miss Mary Crowell, Miss Eliza- 

 beth Freeborn, and Miss Virginia Rey- 

 nolds, had the bird under observation for 

 about thirty minutes, and the same par- 

 ties saw the bird again on January 30. 



This is the first time Mrs. Leach had 

 ever seen the bird, but the other three 

 persons know the bird intimately in the 

 South where they have had them feeding 

 at their windows in other years. 



I have not found time to go to Warren 

 and verify these observations, but the 

 above-named persons are good amateur 

 observers, and in consideration of the 



fact that three of them are familiar with 

 the bird, I feel safe in reporting it as a 

 new record in Rhode Island. — -H. L. 

 Madison, Curator Park Museum, Provi- 

 dence, R. I. 



Pickerel Catching Swallow 



Some of my friends were fishing on a 

 little lake near here. A Swallow was 

 skimming over the lake very near the 

 water, and a pickerel jumped up and 

 caught the bird in its mouth. No one 

 here has seen such a thing happen before. 

 — ^CoNSTANCE Humphrey, Kalamazoo, 

 Mich. 



A Wren's Nesting-Place 



At our country-place, the outside bath- 

 room is not put into use until sometime 

 in May. This spring the pipes were 

 connected the last week in April, and our 

 caretaker unintentionally left the door 

 ajar. When I arrived about the 8th of 

 May, to open the house and put all in 

 readiness for the summer, I found some- 

 one ahead of me who had already put her 

 house in order and had established herself 

 comfortably. It was a House Wren, who 

 had taken advantage of the open door, 

 and was satisfied not only on the lower 

 shelf of the little cabinet that hangs over 

 the tub, but built her nest right upon my 

 empty soap-dish. — Blanche A. Turner, 

 Arcadia, Mo. 



Helpful Young Bluebirds 



A pair of Bluebirds successfully raised 

 a brood in our bird-house in May, the 

 young birds leaving the nest the third 

 of June. After several days, the parent 

 birds built a nest in a similar bird-house 

 in a neighbor's yard and raised a second 

 family. 



We were interested to observe that the 

 young birds worked with the parents in 

 carrying food to the latest fledglings, also 

 in cleaning the nest. Wheri the second 

 brood left the nest, the 'big brothers' 

 seemed as excited as the parents. — Mrs. 

 George A. Harter, Chicago, III. 



