The Cardinal in Xorth-Central Iowa 131 



escape, field glasses in hand. When we reached Mr. Web- 

 ster's place we were told that the birds had gone on down 

 to the river, .^nd so we went after them. And there on 

 the river bank, there, to nn- joy and delight sat Mr. Car- 

 dinal on a three foot weed stem, eating seed. His crest 

 was very erect, and his constant peep reminded me of a 

 chickadee when hnnting on the bark of a tree, save that it 

 was londer and more penetrating. Mrs. Cardinal was cold, 

 apparently, for she was fluffed out, perched in the fork of 

 a tree." 



Concerning the coming of the cardinal to Osage, Iowa, 

 in Mitchell county, and about twenty miles riorth of Charles 

 City, Mrs. Flora May Tuttle says. " The cardinal has been 

 seen in July of 1918, and quite often after that, throughout 

 the 3'ear of 1918-1919, in the north-east, south-east, and 

 soutli-west corners of Osage." I can not believe that the 

 cardinal was very common, however, for this naturalist 

 would not have missed it for so long a period. She says 

 concerning her own observation of the bird, " I was coming 

 home from a meeting of the Naturalist Club (Osega Na- 

 turalist Club), March 20, 1919, where I had told the mem- 

 bers that the cardinal liad been seen several times since 

 January 4, at the Nursery; when just as I got within 

 twenty feet of the house I heard a strange bird note. And 

 looking up, not more than eight feet above my head, on a 

 branch of a hard maple sat my first cardinal for Mitchell 

 county." 



From Elma, which is between Osage and Charles City 

 in latitude, but some twenty miles or more west of Osage. 

 in Howard county, Mrs. H. L. Spaulding reported cardi- 

 nals to the Bird Bureau of the Charles City Club. Her 

 report follows : " The cardinal was seen in a thicket near 

 the creek, in town (Elma) during May, 1919, by Miss Lois 

 Pickering. It remained all summer. I saw it several 

 times during the summer, in the door-yard of one of my 

 neighbors. The mate was always along, and they flew only 

 when I approached nearer than ten or fifteen feet. The 

 birds were seen Christmas Day and frequently since by 



