ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 39 



on Lake Michigan up to the last day, December 31st. Bluebills (Scaups), 

 Whistle Wings (Golden Eyes), Fish Ducks (Hooded Mergansers) and 

 old Squaws were the principal varieties found, although occasionally some- 

 one got a few Redheads or Canvas Hacks. An event in local bird affairs 

 was the arrival near So. Chicago of an immense flight of Golden Plover, 

 in October — weeks behind schedule. I believe they got through without 

 losing a member of the Hock. I hope so at any rate, as they are not 

 game birds. 



I have not been afield a great deal of late but I have seen a number of 

 Cardinals and on my way to the loop I always see numbers of Herring 

 Gulls in the north branch of the Chicago river and plenty of "Downies" 

 busily at work on the bare trees. Several correspondents who live in the 

 suburbs report seeing quite a number of Purple Finches and Evening 

 Grosbeaks. 



Larry St. John. 

 Editor of "Woods and Waters" Chicago Tribune. 



i & v 



Highland Park 



Four years ago this winter we had the pleasure for the first time of 

 having a pair of Cardinals come daily to our feeding shelf. In the spring 

 they disappeared and altho there have been several pairs living in different 

 parts of the town we have seen none in our yard since, until last March 

 when a beautiful male was seen in an oak tree near the house. We im- 

 mediately added sunflower seeds to the supply of grain and suet with which 

 the feeding shelf was always bountifully provided and in a few days had 

 the great pleasure of having him return with his less brilliant but equally 

 beautiful mate.- They came every day and many times a day and we were 

 able to observe them quite closely as the feeding shelf is built on the 

 window sill of a south window in an upstairs sitting room which we use 

 a great deal. 



One day in May we saw quite an acrobatic performance between two 

 gorgeous male birds ; they tumbled over and over in the air darting at each 

 other in a most warlike manner but finally the intruder was driven out and 

 our own brave soldier came back a victor but rather out of breath and with 

 feathers considerably awry. 



From this time on the domestic life of our Cardinals seemed to run 

 very smoothly. Mr. Cardinal was most devoted to his pretty wife during 

 the entire nesting season. They came together to the feeding shelf every 

 day and he was very faithful and untiring in cracking sunflower seeds and 

 leeding them to her. At times she was a bit coquettish and would refuse 

 to come to the shelf preferring to remain in a bush or tree some distance 

 away. When this occurred the faithful husband would crack the seeds 

 and carry them to her ; she always accepted them but many times in a very 

 indifferent manner. 



After awhile we seldom saw Mrs. Cardinal : Mr. Cardinal appeared 

 regularly, ate his meal, then filled his bill with seeds and flew away, pre- 

 sumably to feed her on her nest. One clay we were much interested in see- 

 ing him add a salad course to his dinner. He flew onto the shelf with his 

 bill full of inch pieces of green. They looked like the tips of young gras>. 

 He laid them carefullv on the board, ate several sunflower seeds, then a 



