40 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



mouthful of his salad, then more seeds followed by more salad. He then 

 filled his bill with seeds and last of all picked up the remainder of the 

 green — about half of it — and flew away in the direction of a ravine north 

 of us, where we imagine he had his nest, but which we were never able to 

 find. 



One hot July day I heard a peculiar lisping sound in a tree near one 

 feeding shelf, soon father Cardinal appeared on the shelf and in a most 

 persuasive way tried to call attention to the tempting array of food dis- 

 played there. He would take a mouthful then seemed to say something. 

 We could not see to whom he was speaking but the lisping sound became 

 louder and more continuous ; he finally flew to the tree with his mouth full 

 of seeds and thru my glasses I soon discovered several fluffy brown balls 

 among the green leaves of the oak, which proved to be four baby Cardinals. 

 This coaxing and feeding the young in the tree continued for several days 

 when one morning the father flew onto the shelf followed by the four baby 

 birds,- the cunningest fluffiest little brown balls you ever saw, with black 

 bills and very large mouths which they seemed unable to close. Such a 

 proud and busy father one seldom, sees ! He arranged the children in a 

 row on the edge of the shelf and proceeded to feed them in order. A less 

 industrious and enthusiastic parent would have been discouraged at the 

 black bottomless pits which those four open mouths seemed to indicate, for 

 no matter how many times they were fed, the mouths were always wide 

 open begging for more. Their little monotonous story told over and over 

 again sounded more like a number of grasshoppers than anything else we 

 could think of. We never saw the mother feeding her children nor were 

 they allowed to remain on the shelf when she was there. Whenever she 

 appeared the father would fly at the young frightening them away, and 

 then proceed to feed her. When she had finished her meal and had flown 

 away the little birds would come back from a nearby tree and the father 

 would continue feeding them. The whole family came every day and many 

 times a day. All of the young birds looked very much like the mother with 

 the exception of their bills which were black. They grew rapidly and were 

 soon very independent in feeding themselves whenever the father was not 

 around but just as soon as he appeared they would all open their mouths, 

 and childlike, beg to be waited on. On Labor Day father Cardinal ap- 

 peared with two new little fluff balls who soon grew to be as independent as 

 the first lot. Their bills very gradually turned red, in fact it was well along 

 in December before they seemed as red as the parents'. Among the six 

 young there was only one male. It has been a wonderful treat to have 

 eight Cardinals at our feeding tables most of the winter ! 



In addition to our Kentucky friends we have had daily calls from a 

 number of chick-a-dees, a pair of white breasted nuthatches, a pair of downy 

 woodpeckers and a number of Jays, Early in the winter we had visits 

 from a hairy woodpecker. 



A large flock of Cedar Waxwings, from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred were in the yard for two days. They have a special liking for 

 Japanese Barberries of which we have a good many and on January 10th 

 we discovered about fifty Bohemian Waxwings in an Ash tree and on a 

 stone wall near the house feeding on the berries of a Bittersweet vine. This 

 was an event, as we had never seen the Bohemian W T axwings before. On 

 January 24th we saw a solitary one near the Bittersweet vine. 



