THE CARDINAL GROSBEAK 



then, surely it could be done again and the camera introduced as 

 well. 



In the third year of my work, when material was rapidly shap- 

 ing for the book, a suitable nest-picture was lacking. In a search 

 for moth cocoons in the valley of the Wood Robin a delighted cry 

 from my invaluable assistant, Molly-cotton, brought me quickly. 

 She had found for me the typical nest, exactly what I wanted for 

 my series, and you should have seen her shining face when I told 

 her so. 



The nest was four feet from the ground, not far from the 

 Wood Robin's location, on a brush heap overgrown and covered in 

 a thick mat with wild roses, grape-vines and blackberry bushes. 

 The roses were in full bloom, and their delicate blossoms were 

 close over and about the brooding mother. The nest was a little 

 firmer than the usual Cardinal construction, typical of the best 

 sort, the lining of dried grass quite thickly woven and cuppy, the 

 four blue-white eggs mizzled and mottled all over with brownish 

 and dark lavender specks, no two of them exactly the same color , 

 and one egg, undoubtedly the first, quite perceptibly larger than 

 the others. That told the story of a young bird in her first brood- 

 ing, and, as a pullet sometimes does, she had surpassed herself 

 with her first egg. With the securing of that nest my series was 

 complete, for I had sufficient material for every other illustration 

 needed. Studies of more or less value had been made about almost 

 every one of the nests located by others or myself. 



I chose for the hero of my story a male Cardinal, undoubtedly 

 a stray in Indiana, for he certainly was the big brilliant "redbird" 

 of Kansas and Iowa. I could not carry him through the illustra- 

 tion a half-dozen different Cardinals had to be worked in for 

 that but I got him several times alone, so that he dominated 



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