Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-28
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceUeH.


The day of the big snow we had
mother cardinal as a special guest.
What could be nicer2
In the fash of her mate, the female
OF this species is often lost to view, but
she possesses beauty all her own, and
a distinct character.
That snowy day the birds were in
flocks at the feeding station on q
stand out by the garage.
There were two auxiliary feeders, one
by the west fence, with nothing in It.
as so often happens, and one on the
east with a Suet cake in 1t so hard that
few species had bills tough enough
to cut it.
We thought something special should
be the order of the day, SO filled a fiat
tray with sunhower seed and raisins.
and placed 1t on the back porch floor,
Thls station has two wire trays, with
glass drinking fountain in the middle.
The idea is to water and feed the birds
at the same time, but like so many
ideas conceived by persons who are not
personally familiar with birds, the idea
is something of dud for the birds get
the water SO full of seed husks that
they cannot drink
Scarcely day passes that some en-
thuslast does not come UP and say, IT
have an idea for squirrel-proof feed
ing statlon!" Our question always is,
Will 1t Work?" and the answer always
is "Of course Then we ask Have
you tried it out?" and the invariable
answer is, mo, not yet-but I know it
will work"
Birds are odd things, and cannot be
judged by human standards. Neither
can squirrels.
We filled the two wire-bottom trays.
and the glass drinking fountain, put
ting sunf1ower seed in the trays, and
the raisins in the glass container.
1t really made very nice-looking
tray, good enough to eat-if you were
bird.
Well, no sooner had the door closed,
than the mother cardinal flew in.
She was accompanied by her mate.
and each of them took saucer of sun
flower seed. For wonder they ate
together amicably. Too often the male
OF this species chases his mate away,
except in spring, when he likes to feed
her seed, bill to bill. This is often
referred to as kissing" by observers
who are not close enough to see the
seed passed from mouth to mouth.
The male bird few away, and we
thought she would soon join him, but
evidently her appetite was better than
his.
She walked right into the center of
a tray, and there proceeded to eat.
This she kept up all afternoon.
She was quite brown on the back,
and lacked most of the Paisley shawl
design which many female cardinals
have.
Her bill was coral.
She was not quite as large as most
mother birds.
We were particularly glad that she
had discovered the feeder on the porch,
and hoped that the English sparrows
would not see it for a long time.
Scores of them were out in the yard,
making the ground black. in contrast
with the snow.
Usually these intelligent birds spot
a new feeding station as quickly as
any, but this time, for some reason.
they did not, but continued on in the
yard.
This left the new station to the
faithful mother cardinal. Occasionally
song sparrow would come in, and he
would eat peacefully with her.
chickadee, he with the black cap,
new in one time, and sat in the other
seed tray.
None of them touched the raisins
until two starlings flew in. These
chased the mother cardinal away.
sampled few raisins, and then flew
away themselves.
No sooner had they departed, than
our special guest came back, and oc-
cupied her favorite tray again. She
ate faithfully all afternoon, and was
back the next morning early.
There were still hundreds of seeds in
the two trays, and most of the raisins.
Il one had nothing but the better
birds. feeding would be great deal
cheaper.