BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 29 1 



Audubon says: " According to Dr. T. M. Brewer," a pair " bred in the Botanical 

 Garden, Cambridge, about six years ago, and departed in the fall, with their 

 young." ^ The substance of this statement is repeated by Dr. Brewer in the 

 following words: " A pair was once known to spend the summer and to rear 

 its brood in the Botanical Gardens of Harvard College in Cambridge. "^ There 

 can be little or no question that the instance referred to by both these writers 

 was the same as that mentioned by Nuttall who, however, does not say that the 

 birds bred in the Botanic Garden, but, on the contrary, clearly implies that they 

 merely paid it a brief visit in early May, reappearing for a single day in July of 

 the same year, which must have been prior to 1832, the date of publication of 

 Nuttall's 'Land Birds.' 



On November i, 1889, Mr. Walter Faxon found a female Cardinal in 

 Arlington on the edge of Spy Pond. 



In 1895 a Cardinal was seen or heard repeatedly between June 19 

 and 23 by Mr. Edward R. Cogswell in the trees immediately about his house 

 on Kirkland Street, Cambridge. Mr. Cogswell writes me that the bird was a 

 male "apparently in good health and in full song." 



On August 21, 1897, Mr. H. A. Purdie and I heard the sharp chirp of a 

 Cardinal in a cluster of Norway spruces at Payson Park, Belmont. On the 27th 

 of the same month Mr. Walter Faxon visited the place and saw the bird, which 

 proved to be a male. It was not noted after the date last mentioned. 



In 1 90 1 a male Cardinal^ was seen at frequent intervals in November and 

 December in various parts of Cambridge. It was met with first on November 1 3, 

 in the College Yard, by Mr. Manton Copeland, and last on December 9, in Long- 

 fellow Park, by Mr. Thomas Hillery. During the interim it appeared in the 

 Botanic Garden, and in grounds bordering on Wendell Street, Avon Hill Street, 

 Sparks Street and Fayerweather Street. In the locality last named it was 

 observed almost daily from November 21 to 30 in the shrubbery about Mr. 

 Samuel Henshaw's house, where it was regularly fed with rice, peas, crackers, 

 bread crumbs, etc. It was a shy bird, usually retreating into the nearest cover 

 when approached. 



Early in the morning of December 26, 1902, Mr. Walter Deane and Mr. 

 Samuel Henshaw saw a female Cardinal in our garden, flitting about among 

 some shrubs and low trees, the branches of which were loaded with damp snow 

 that had fallen during the preceding night. The bird remained in the garden 



^ J. J. Audubon, Birds of America, III, 1841, 201. 



^Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, History of North American Birds, II, 1874, loi. 

 ' The occurrence of this bird has already been reported by Mr. Arthur C. Comey in the Auk 

 (XIX, 1902, 86). 



