WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



the limb lower so that the lining will show, as well as outside 

 material, and with a little wooden paddle turn^ at least one egg 

 so that the shape and markings are distinct. This can not possi- 

 bly hurt the egg and when the bird returns to brood she will 

 replace it to suit herself. 



If you find statements in the writings of a natural-history 

 photographer that you can not corroborate in the writings of your 

 favorite ornithologist, be reasonable. Who is most likely to 

 know? The one who tries to cover the habits and dispositions of 

 the birds of a continent in the lifetime of one person, or the one 

 who, in the hope of picturing one bird, lies hidden by the day 

 watching a nest? Sometimes a series of one bird covers many 

 days, sometimes weeks, as the Kingfisher; sometimes months, as 

 the Vulture; and sometimes years, as did the Cardinals of this 

 book. Does it not stand to reason that, in such intimacy with a 

 few species, much can be learned of them that is new? 



All that my best authority on our native birds can say of the 

 eggs of a Quail is that they are "roundish." He hesitates over the 

 assertion that Cardinals eat insects, and states for a fact that they 

 brood but once a season. No bird is so completely a seed- or in- 

 sect-eater that it does not change its diet. Surely the Canaries of 

 your cages are seed-eaters, yet every Canary -lover knows that if 

 the bird's diet is not varied with lettuce, apple, egg and a bit of 

 raw beefsteak occasionally, it will pull out its feathers and nibble 

 the ends of them for a taste of meat. Chickens will do the same 

 thing. 



Certainly Cardinals eat insects, quite freely. The one lure 

 effective above all others in coaxing a Cardinal before a lens was 

 fresh, bright red, scraped beefsteak. Nine times out of ten this 

 bird went where I wanted him when a dead limb set with raw 

 meat was introduced into his surroundings. He would ven- 



* 14 



