year, in the breeding season they usually 

 remain near their nesting sites. The nests 

 are generally placed in bushes or in the 

 low trees of a thicket. The thickets of 

 river bottoms are favorite nesting sites. 

 There they frequently build in the climb- 

 ing vines. The nest is seldom built at a 

 greater elevation than six or eight feet 

 above the ground. The Cardinal is a shy 

 bird during the breeding season and in- 

 stances of its building a nest near public 

 places are not frequent. During the mat- 

 ing season there seems to be only a 

 friendly rivalry for the attention of some 

 female. Frequently two males will be 

 seeking her favor at the same time, both 

 singing until the woods seem filled with 

 their music. They never seem to become 

 jealous in their rivalry and never resort 

 to encounters for supremacy, as do many 

 other birds. "Like typical nobles of 

 olden times, never forgetting their high 

 position and ever respecting the least of 

 the proprieties, the Cardinals move and 

 live truly kings among their baser fel- 

 lows." 



Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller has so well 

 portrayed the domestic habits of these 

 pretty birds that we repeat her words. 

 She says : "As the head of a family the 

 Cardinal is admirable not only in his at- 

 tentions to his lovely dove-colored mate, 

 but in singing to her by the hour, and in 

 protecting her from intrusion or danger. 

 To> the young in the nest he is an untir- 

 ing provider of worms and grubs, and 

 thus most useful in the garden. Noth- 

 ing can be more comical than his be- 

 havior when he first conducts his young 

 family out into the world while his mate 

 is engaged with her second sitting. He 

 is as fussy as any young mother, hopping 

 about in great excitement, and appearing 

 to think the whole world thirsting for the 

 life of his pretty little ones. The Car- 

 dinal mother shows the restless manners 

 and anxious spirit of her mate, taking 

 one's intrusion upon her domestic affairs 

 greatly to heart, and being so much dis- 

 turbed that there is. more pain than pleas- 

 ure in making acquaintance with her 

 nestlings." 



A FLYING LESSON. 



_ 



Cock Robin sat on one of the middle 

 branches of a tall old thorn tree which 

 stands in the center of a bright green 

 meadow. 



The meadow is an ideal meadow, with 

 its singing brook cooing a drowsy lullaby 

 and with its carpet of meshy clover, 

 dotted with pink and white bloom send- 

 ing forth a most enticing odor, fresh and 

 invigorating. 



The old thorn tree is an ideal tree for 

 a bird-house ; great spreading branches, 

 interlaced and overlapping form a safe 

 hiding place from prying eyes, while 



threatening clusters of long, forked 

 thorns defy the would be desecration of 

 happy birddom. 



To the right and slightly below Cock 

 Robin was a nest, carefully woven of fine 

 rootlets and grapevine bark on the out- 

 side, plastered smoothly inside with clay 

 brought from the near-by brook, and 

 lastly an interlining of fine soft grass. 



In the nest were three baby Robins, 

 well covered with feathers. 



Mother Robin was fluttering about 

 hither and yon, now hovering near the 

 nest, now rising above it, now dropping 



86 



