20 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Cardinals at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 



On Thanksgiving Day, 1917, great was the excitement at 

 Wychwood, Lake Geneva, to see a male cardinal feeding with 

 the j uncos where hemp seed had been thrown on the brick 

 paths of the formal garden close to the house. A cardinal 

 had been noted during the summer at Yerkes Observatory some 

 three miles away. 



All the following winter we kept food near the cottage 

 windows and the cardinal came frequently to the bird table. 

 In April I asked Mr. De Vry at Lincoln Park for a mate; he 

 sent me, with full directions as to procedure, a Mexican female 

 more brilliant in coloring than our own female cardinal. I 

 carried her up to the Lake and, arriving at night, put her in a 

 larger cage with water and food in my room. Early in the 

 morning I heard the male cardinal's song; so did she, and beat 

 frantically at her bars. I took her at once to the screened 

 porch of the cottage and there kept her for a week. The male 

 bird came almost immediately to see her; she was coy but in- 

 terested. He fed on a window box just outside her screen and 

 even brought bits of nesting material there, — dare we say to 

 show her? She seemed contented and ate well. I do not know 

 whether or not she was born in captivity but I think not. She 



answered his whistle with her own lovely notes and each day 

 showed more progress in their acquaintance. Finally she be- 

 came so restless that, although the weather was still cold and 

 rainy, it was decided to release her and, taking advantage of 

 the male bird's close proximity, the door was opened and the 

 coquette flew to a tree top in the opposite direction. How- 

 ever, it was not long before they were seen together and their 

 answering songs were heard. After the middle of May they 

 left our woods but were reported at various places around the 

 Lake. Each autumn since they have returned to Wychwood 

 and during the winter have fed on the snow by the cottage. 



This Thanksgiving morning, I heard a call a bit stronger 

 than the j unco's and looking out of my dressing room window 

 saw on the trumpet-vine over the porch the brilliant male bird. 

 He flew down to the terrace for hemp seed and on to the lawn. 

 Later in the day the female appeared in an aralia bush close to 

 the terrace. Mr. Frost at the Yerkes Observatory has a re- 

 cord of more than one nest this last summer. On another es- 

 tate near by five birds were counted at once. We like to think 

 that it is our original cardinal and his Mexican mate who spend 

 their winters at Wychwood. 



Frances K. Hutchinson. 



