THE OOLOGIST 



401 



The Birds "Self Served" Lunch. 



All authors represent the Kentucky 

 Cardinal or Virginia Redbird as a 

 snobish, unsociable, selfish bird and a 

 resident of the marsh and deep wood. 



My experience with these beauties 

 is so different from the reputation 

 which they have that I want their 

 admirers to know how cosmopolitan, 

 how friendly and how civilized they 

 can be. 



Our home is within three blocks of 

 the business section and our living 

 room porch is about 40 feet from the 

 street. Not enclosed by shrubs. Up- 

 on this porch and my window sill the 

 Cardinals feed every winter. 



In the fall, a male and a female 

 came, and they are later joined, each 

 year, by two and three males. 



Netji Balchan says, "Bearing himself 

 with a refined and courtly dignity, 

 not stooping to soil his feet by walk- 

 ing on the ground like the more dem- 

 ocratic robin, or even condescending 

 below the level of the laurel bushes, 

 the cardinal is literally a shining ex- 

 ample of self conscious superiority, a 

 bird to call forth respect and admir- 

 ation rather than affection." 



From day light until dark every 

 day, my beautiful friends dine at my 

 festive board. 



They "break bread" with the 

 Nuthatch, the Chickadee, the Wood- 

 peckers, the Waxwings and even the 

 sparrows but draw the line at the 

 Blue Jay. Frequently they drop to 

 the ground and eat the seeds that 

 have fallen. 



The snow, where so many birds 

 (largely sparrows, of course,) have 

 lighted, is as well trodden as a child's 

 playground. 



In his own family Mr. Cardinal is 

 a trifle overbearing, but that may not 

 be his fault, who knows. While he 

 eats, Mrs. Cardinal, who is so exqui- 

 sitely colored, patiently and admiring- 



ly sits on the porch rail or in the gush 

 near by and waits for him to crack 

 and eat from ten to twenty sunflower 

 seeds. When he leaves she comes 

 down and eats. 



If she is particularly hungry, or per- 

 haps disrespectful, she will drop 

 down, thinking to "put one over him" 

 but he soon reminds her that she is 

 out of order. However on the ground 

 they both feed together. With no other 

 bird does he act this way. She appar- 

 ently does not resent his treatment 

 of her, for I have never seen the beau- 

 tiiul blush on her breast deepen. 



Bird authorities say that the Cardi- 

 nal begins its glorious song in March. 

 My Cardinals begin singing the last of 

 January, indeed they are singing now, 

 but not their fullest. From the apple 

 tree above the porch within full view 

 of several of our windows they sing 

 all day. They are so gorgeous, so lov- 

 able, and so unusual that they are al- 

 ways new to us. Close to the kitchen 

 window is a shrub protected from the 

 west wind by a woodhouse. On the 

 coldest days my beauties sit there with 

 their heads under their wings, leav- 

 ing only long enough to come for more 

 seeds. 



Last summer we found a nest of 

 the Cardinal, parent on the nest, 

 which was built in a wild grape vine 

 about six feet from the ground. Vine 

 covered a shed belonging to a summer 

 cottage at Cold Water Lake. Cottager 

 had not yet come. 



The members of my bird family eat 

 from sixty to seventy-five pounds of 

 sunflcwer seeds during the winter. 

 However I have other boarders than 

 the Cardinals, the busiest of whom are 

 the Chickadees. On my railing and 

 porch posts and trees is plenty of 

 suet, and the Chickadees and 

 Nuthatches have arranged their affairs 

 so that all of their time can be divid- 

 ed between eating seeds and suet. The 



