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Bird -Lore 



young ones. I believe this much of the 

 story has already been told in Bird-Lore, 

 by a friend of mine; but, as it is only the 

 beginning of an interesting acquaintance 

 with these particular Redbirds, I venture to 

 repeat it. 



The old birds continued to care for their 

 children in the flower-pot for three or four 

 days; then one day we had the privilege of 

 watching them teach the little ones to fly. 

 They never went back to the nest after 

 that, but stayed in the neighborhood, and 

 came several times every day to the sill of 

 the bay-window close to the hydrangea 

 bush, where I kept corn for them. The 

 three little ones usually sat near the end of 

 a certain branch of an apple tree, which 

 hangs directly in front of the window, and 

 their father would fly back and forth from 

 sill to the branch, to feed them. They did 

 this frequently while I was sitting in the 

 lawn-swing under the apple tree, not more 

 than eight feet away from them. Some- 

 times a greedy youngster would hop over 

 the others, to get nearer the end of the 

 branch, and the corn. The mother bird 

 came less often, and always alone, and 

 would not go near the window if anyone 

 was in the swing. They kept coming every 

 day till early in the fall, when the young 

 birds were larger than their father. He 

 had worn himself thin taking care of them. 

 We saw no more of the young birds 

 after September, but the old ones have 

 continued to come ever since, never 

 being absent more than two or three 

 days. 



In the winter we had some very deep 

 snows, and I put the Redbirds' food on the 

 floor of a porch, not used much in winter, 

 which was easier to clear of snow than the 

 window-sills, and more protected. They 

 came regularly, and so did many other 

 birds. One day in February, when it 

 snowed hard all day, there were eight 

 kinds of birds either on the porch or in a 

 bush where I had put some suet. Besides 

 the two Cardinals, there were Tree Spar- 

 rows, English Sparrows, Blue Jays, Nut- 

 hatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted 

 Titmice, and Black-capped Chickadees. 

 A few days later, while the weather was 



still stormy, some Song Sparrows also 

 come to the porch several times. 



When nest-building time came this year, 

 the Cardinals did not build in the hy- 

 drangea bush, as we had hoped they would, 

 but in an ivy vine growing over a carriage- 

 house at the home of some friends of ours, 

 which is on the opposite corner of the block. 

 They hatched four young birds, but in 

 some unknown way have lost two of them. 

 The remaining two began coming with the 

 old birds to our house when they got able 

 to fly well, and the head of the family was 

 kept busy waiting on them for six weeks 

 or more. This year, I put their corn on the 

 roof of the bay-window, and on the stone 

 walk which passes under a grape-arbor in 

 the back yard. The birds seem to prefer 

 the lunch-counter in the arbor, as there 

 are plenty of bugs there with which to 

 vary their diet. 



In the earlj' summer, this vicinity was 

 infected with swarms of rose-beetles. A 

 plum tree back of our house was literally 

 covered with them. The female Redbird 

 discovered them there very soon, told her 

 mate about them, and the two had a 

 delightful time gobbling rose-beetles, till 

 they had cleared the tree. That tree never 

 before had its plums come to perfection; 

 they always were stung by some insect, 

 and would drop just as they began to turn 

 in color. This year, the Cardinals must 

 have eaten those insects as well as the rose- 

 beetles, as there was a fine crop of plums. 

 If the troublesome insect was the plum 

 curculio, as I suppose, certainly the Car- 

 dinal bird is a cardinal antidote for it! 

 The birds also kept the grape-vines in our 

 yard, and in the one where they had their 

 nest, cleared of insects, so that the grapes 

 and the clusters were perfect. I am sure 

 it has been worth while to encourage the 

 Cardinals to stay with us, for the material 

 benefits, as well as for the fine music they 

 give us. There have been Orioles', Blue- 

 birds', and Carolina Wrens' nests in this 

 neighborhood, as well as a great many 

 Robins', but the Cardinals deserve all the 

 credit I have given them, for they have 

 been here constantly, and the other birds 

 only occasionally. 



