292 Bird - Lore 



days to see how many eggs are laid or how the young are getting on, meanwhile 

 shying stones at the too-inquisitive squirrels or sicking the dog on the prowling 

 neighborhood cat. They showed me where a Mourning Dove had appropriated 

 an old Robin's nest for its own nesting-site, and where a Summer Warbler 

 had placed its nest in one of my raspberry bushes. In fact, they allow nothing 

 to escape my notice. 



A pair of Flickers made their nest in a short log which I set on top of a 

 post for them. The upper end of the log had a deep decayed knothole cavity. 

 I cleaned it out as well as I could and covered it with a board, but at best 

 it was a dirty sort of place. Having seen their well-made, gourd-shaped exca- 

 vations, I was not sure that they would take kindly to my improvised cavity. 

 But when their nine eggs were laid I found them on an exquisite bed of clean 

 chips which they had chiseled out of one side of the knothole. They had 

 thrown out the dirty chips, using only the small clean ones for their nest. 

 These they formed into a neat low mound on the broad bottom of the cavity, 

 and their eggs were laid in a shallow depression in its center. 



The Cardinal Grosbeak has been seen in the woods of the Missouri bottom 

 for several years, but they are now venturing up into town. They were fre- 

 quently seen about homes last winter. Male and female came for a time to a 

 friend's food-box to eat sunflower seeds. In the spring I saw a pair in my own 

 back yard, and from all signs a pair is nesting this season in our nearest ravine. 



My yard was as full of birds as my bushes were of fruit when my raspberries 

 began to ripen, but I wanted a few berries myself, so I turned the bird-bath 

 upside down and bade my feathered friends good-bye for a little while. In 

 half a day nine-tenths of them were gone. When the berries are safe in cans 

 for winter use I shall fill the bath again and invite the birds to return. From 

 past experience I know that many of them will respond; but some of them 

 will soon begin to gather in flocks for their southward journey, and I shall 

 see no more of them until next year. 



