The Cardinal in North-Central Iowa 123 



THE CARDINAL IN NORTH-CENTRAL IOWA. 



BY HOWARD CLARK BROWN 



One of tlie birds Avhich has been followed with a great 

 deal of interest by bird students of North-Central Iowa is 

 the cardinal (Gardmalis cardinalis cardinaUs). Within 

 the past ten years there has been a rather strange Northern 

 advance of this bird within the region with which this 

 article deals. The reason for this advance no one can 

 guess, but the advance is far more than a local f»henonienoii. 

 As Miss x^lthea R. Sherman wrote, '" In the past ten years 

 there have been numerous accounts from the Atlantic sea- 

 board and westward of the northern advance of the Cardi- 

 nal." * And then she continues with the statement that 

 '' it appears that this northward movement has been all 

 along tlie line of its range from northern Massachusetts to 

 the Mississipjn River." This report of Miss Sherman's 

 was publislied in 1018. At that time, so far as I know, the 

 cardinal had not been reported from North-Central Iowa 

 at all. Three years later the first report for that region 

 reached tlie Bird Bureau at Charles City, Iowa. And from 

 1916 up to the present date we have had a number of inter- 

 esting records of the cardinal's appearance within our area. 



When the Califor Naturalist Club of Charles City, 

 Iowa, first began keeping definite bird records, in the sum- 

 mer of 11)14, not a single cardinal was reported from any 

 member. We did not think it at all strange that the cardi- 

 nal was not on our list. Why should we have expected 

 him? AVe associated the Red Bird with that group which 

 belonged to regions considerably south of our region. We 

 knew tliat Southern Iowa claimed the cardinal as a resi- 

 dent. We kneAV that he came up both of the great rivers 

 whicli bound our state, reaching far north of the boundary 



* Sherman — Carolinian Avifauna in Northeastern Iowa — In The 

 Auk, Vol. XXX, No. 1, P. 78. 



