98 



THE CARDINAL. 



week by regurgitation, but after that the parents supply them grain and 

 insects directly or assist them in cracking seeds. 



After the Robin the Cardinal's nest is the easiest to find, and perhaps 

 the most common in middle and southern Ohio. Nesting begins early in 

 the season, and two, sometimes three, broods are raised. April 15th, 1901, 

 before a green leaf had shown itself in Columbus, I found a full set of eggs 



Taken near Livclcz-tllc 



THli CARDINAL'S NliST. 



in a rude nest placed in a bunch of drift material which had caught from a 

 recent flood. Others liave reported eggs as late as August 28th. 



Nests are usually placed low in bushes, or at moderate heights in thickets 

 and saplings. Grape-\'ine tangles and porch trellises are favorite places, and 

 occasionally nests are saddled upon horizontal limbs of trees. Miss Gertrude 

 F. Harvey of Bond Hill (Cincinnati) kept a most interesting diarv of a 

 pair which nested in her conservatory. The nest was placed in a Marechal 

 Neil rose-bush, to which the birds found access first through a roof venti- 

 lator and then through the open window. 



In construction the nest varies from tidy to disreputable, according to 

 skill and season. A tyjiical one is composed externally of long stiff weeds 

 and leaf-stems, and measiu-es roughly seven inches across, witli an extreme 



