/ Has any one ever noticed any symptoms of 

 irregularity in the laying of the Cardinal ? I 

 have on several occasions known them to miss 

 a day or two while laying, and on one occasion 

 in 1885 I found a nest containing one egg 

 nearly fresh, one about one third incubated, 

 and one about two thirds incubated. Another 

 point in connection with the Cardinal is 

 that nearly twenty-five per cent, of all nests 

 found will have bi-oken eggs in them or 

 else the eggs will be destroyed before the set 

 is completed. I think the Catbird is mostly 

 responsible for this as the nests are usually 

 placed in situations where Catbirds abound, 

 and I once found one sitting on the edge 

 of a Cardinal's nest which contained broken 

 eggs. 



Apropos of the Catbird's egg -eating propen- 

 sities, I saw one last summer settle on a rock 

 near our house with something in his bill, 

 and on scaring him he left the remains of an 

 egg of his own sijecies on the rock and de- 

 parted, so I suppose we must dub him canni- 

 bal as well as thief. 



■^-(A^iC4j t^co«/ eitCpla. ruApv, Jlrv^ -i- teoCZ . 



Q^.i-dP. XI. M(nr. Ji-ifi . J'U . 



several years ago my attention was called to the large 

 BumDerof Chipping Sparrow's nests tt^'^t/J.''',''."'" ^ ™^ 

 overturned. For every nest with young of th.B kmd, I flt-d 

 the average is a little more than ten that have been de 

 spoiled. This is the work ol OathWs, for I have seen 

 them robbing the nests many times. ^ 



O.&O. XI.NOV.1336.P. I 



