156 THE WILSON BULLETIN— September, 1921 



than this I could get no information, and after making a note ot 

 it the subject was forgotten. 



Birds would be as liliely to preen their feathers before a storm 

 as at any othei' time, and it might be easy to imagine a connection 

 in this respect, while a definite answer v.rould be very difficult 

 to obtain. If any reader has ready information on this subject, 

 I should be very grateful if he would impart it. 



Vreu J. Pierce. 



Winthrop, Iowa. 



CARDINALS AT WAYALUSING, WISCONSIN 

 Mr. Howard Clark Brown's notes on the Cardinal lead me to 

 offer my experiences with the species here. While I was making 

 a bird count in the woods in summer I found fully as many car- 

 dinals as we find here in winter. They were about their nesting 

 activities, and of course secretive and not easy to find. In the win- 

 ter they find the food easier to get and more abundant at the lunch 

 counters than in the woods, therefore one finds them plentiful in 

 places where they are easily seen. They break up the big kernels 

 of corn with a sort of churning movement of their bills. I ouce 

 saw a male cardinal feed his mate while she was sitting on the 

 nest. He broke the kernels of corn up and then fed the pieces one 

 by one to the female, putting them into her bill. In the winter 

 one is sure to find cardinals about corn cribs where the corn can 

 be gotten at. Cardinals also like nut meats and squash and pump- 

 kin seeds. Like many of our native birds- they are tormented by 

 the English sparrow. A pair tried to nest in the vines on my 

 neighbor's porch. Three eggs were laid before the sparrows found 

 the nest. Then the sparrows broke one of the eggs. The car- 

 dinals succeeded in hatching one young, but the sparrows killed 

 it and tore the nest to pieces. Another pair of cardinals tried to 

 build a nest in some grape vines near the house, but as fast as the 

 cardinals would build it the sparrows tore it down. The cardinals 

 finally got discouraged and went away. Three pairs of cardinals 

 nested near my house last summer. Senator Robert Glenn found 

 the first cardinal here in 1906. Now there are dozens of them. 



MUS. JODA M.\ox. 



Wayalusing, Wis. 



