150 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 84. 



Field Notes 



THE INCREASE OF THE CARDINAL IN THE UPPER 

 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



The recent appearance of the Cardinal along the banks of the 

 Mississippi River in the territory lying on either side of the forty- 

 third parallel of latitude has already received mention in the or- 

 nithological magazines; but the reports of its remarkable increase 

 in numliers, together with additional data seem to warrant further 

 reference to a tAvice told tale. 



The mouth of the Wisconsin River is in latitude 43 degrees ex- 

 actly, in about the same latitude that we find Milwaukee, Wis., 

 Grand Rapids and Port Huron, Mich., Buffalo and Syracuse, N. Y., 

 and Portsmouth, N. H., nevertheless its remoteness from a large 

 body of water gives this Mississippi Valley point a decidedly colder 

 winter climate than have most places into which the Cardinal has 

 adA'anced in recent years. 



The dates of the first observations of the Cardinal in the vicinity 

 south of the mouth of the Wisconsin River have been given by Miss 

 Elma Gertrude Glenn of Wyalusing, Wisconsin, in a recent letter 

 a portion of which is given here : "In November, 1906, Mr. H. W. 

 Brown, of Lancaster, Wis., a camping companion of my father, ob- 

 served one. a male, just north of the village of Wyalusing. The 

 following February, (1907), my father found one at the base of 

 the bluff along the Mississippi River, near where the first wa& 

 found about one mile south of the Wisconsin River. Since that 

 time the.v have become more common each year until last year r 

 during 1910-'11-'12 several pairs were noticed." 



On the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, directly opposite 

 Wyalusing, at the mouth of Sny Magill Creek, on April 17, 1908, 1 

 found a pair of Cardinals ; until a year ago I supposed these were 

 the first of this species identified in Clayton County, but the note- 

 book of Mrs. Mary E. Platch of McGregor, shows that she saw one 

 there for a moment on December 11. 1900. The winter feeding of 

 the Cardinal in McGregor began in the autumn of 190S. when one 

 came to the yard of Mrs. M. A. Jordan ; it has been continued since 

 then with a gradual increase in the number of these birds. Last 

 winter by the aid of the telephone it was learned that five Cardi- 

 nals were eating at the same time in two yards, distance about a 

 mile apart. The summer of 1913 has shown a very marked in- 

 crease in the number of this species about McGregor, until people 

 say of them : "They have become as conunon as Robins." About 

 the village the summer locations of eight pairs, in ]))-ivate yards,. 



