Evening star., 1947-01-06
This and That
By Charles E. TrdceWeH. -.
g a "JONQUIL STREET.

"a JONS2U1L STREET..
Dear Sir:
II have been reading your column,
hoping you would write about the car
dinal. and so Ifenjoyed your recent
article on the bird. hope sometime
soon you will tell more about this red
bird-f it lives in nest, its cali,
habits. etc. Very truly yours, L. e. c."
y II X
Mature birds do not really live in
nests; only the baby birds can be said to
do SO, and they only for few days, at
best.
The nest is not birds home" in
any real sense, but rather q cradle, in
which the young are born, fed and pro-
tected until they get their flying wings.
The use of the word NEST" for
home" however, has prevailed SO long
that 1t is not much use saying anything
about it.
1t is difficult for human beings, used
to living in homes, and holding the
idea of "home" in their heads, to realize
that birds actually have no homes, in
that sense.
II anything can be called the home
OF migrating birds, it is the Southland,
to which they 60 back each year.
This is, of course, the home territory
for them. For nonmigrating birds,
such as the cardinals, wherever they
spend their time is home, sweet home,
for them.
They live in the air, in the trees, in
shrubbery, on the ground, sometimes
on telephone wires, on posts, just
wherever they happen to be.
The nncttny activifu fakac nIoco In,
spring and summer, usually twice, once
in early spring and about midsummer,
but sometimes oftener.
just few days are devoted to con-
structing the nest, then the eggs are
laid, and about IA days are spent in
Matching them out.
After this, the young are fed and
protected for about three weeks, after
which they never return to the nests
nor do the parents.
A fresh nest is built for the second
brood. This is done for sanitary rea-
sons, also to throw any possible enemies
off the scent.
Keep moving" is the bird motto,
X y
The cardinal nest Is located in shrub
berry. thickets or vines, not very high,
fine job, but adequate.
It is made of small twigs, weed stems,
grass, strips of bark, and is lined with
rootletS and hair, when available. The
fiuff from vacuum-sweeper bags Is
sometimes used
Eggs laid number from two to four.
They are white, BLUSH or greenish
white, marked with spots of purple,
chestnut and brown, fairly well scat
tered over the entire egg.
The male bird Is good father, caring
for the young of the first brood, some
times, while the mother is sitting on a
second laying.
The male sings to his mate. and she
often answers back, for this Is one fe-
male bird which can sing almost as well
as the male.
The cardinal song, first heard each
| year in February. usually. is composed
| of two notes, the second higher. fol-
| lowed by three or four long notes. all
the same, each of these latter seeming
| to say Cheer, cheer, cheer"
1t is for this reason that some en-
| thusiasts call the redbird the cheer
| bird
The bird has variety of call notes,
4 mainly Of q chipping sort. the best
! known OF which is rapid chip-chip-
chip of alarm.
At winter feeding stations the male
cardinal insists on eating first and
sometimes even keeps his mate away
from the food until he has finished, but
when spring arrives he lis more solicit
GUS. cften proferring her a choice seed
and when he does this the birds seem to
| be kissing.