The Cardinal in North-Central Iowa I29f 



winter for the past three j^ears. The male is certainly a 

 beauty and I hope it will continue to make its home with 

 us." 



Osage, Iowa, in Mitchell county, and almost the exact 

 latitude of Decorah, did not report cardinals until July,, 

 1918. It was on a far more direct route, being on the 

 Cedar River which flows quite directly north in that region,, 

 but the fact that Decorah is nearer the great stream from 

 which the cardinal wave seems to first have spread, seems 

 to have "caused the later arrival in the interior. However,, 

 the directness of the route did have some influence, for 

 Charles City, in Floyd county, and only twenty miles by 

 road, almost directly south of Osage, had some reports of 

 cardinals which antedated the Osage reports by a couple of 

 years. The river way would add considerable in mileage 

 to the distance between these two places. But it would 

 not seem that it could possibly add enough to account for 

 the difference in dates, especially when one considers other 

 problems regarding the bird's appearance here. 



When Master Harold Fredrickson, President of the 

 Toksali Nature Study Club, of Charles City, first reported 

 that he had seen a cardinal, on Burroughs Day, April 3^ 

 1916, the naturalists of Charles City were tempted to 

 doubt his vision. The report was given by the two boys^ 

 Harold Fredrickson, and Leslie Kober. The bird had been 

 seen in Wildwood Park. That is a tract of woodland just 

 at the edge of Charles City, and would have been one of 

 the most likely places for such birds that we knew. But 

 cardinals had never been seen in our region and we won- 

 dered if we dared credit it on our club list. We exper- 

 ienced that strange uneasiness which naturalists always 

 feel when things " 'aint just as they ough'to be." 



A year went by and we did not report the birds on our 

 year's list. In 1917, however, early in the summer, re- 

 ports came from some boys on the south side of the river^ 

 that they had seen a cardinal in the trees of their yard. 

 The description was asked for and was given with consid- 



