hole family happened to meet at table. The mother came
first, and then the three young ones, all of whom were trying their best
to feed themselves. At last came their "natural provider;" and one of
the juveniles, who found the grains almost unmanageable, could not help
begging of him. He gently but firmly drove the pleader away, as if he
said, "My son, you are big enough to feed yourself." The little one
turned, but did not go; he stood with his back toward his parent, and
wings still fluttering. Then papa flew to a low branch of the
spruce-tree, and instantly the infant followed him, still begging with
quivering wings. Suddenly the elder turned, and I expected to see him
annihilate that beggar, but, to my surprise, he fed him! He could not
hold out against him! He had been playing the stern parent, but could
not keep it up. It was a very pretty and very human-looking performance.

A day or two after the family had learned to take care of themselves,
the original pair, the parents of the pretty brood, came and went
together to the field, while the younglings appeared sometimes in a
little flock, and sometimes one alone; and from that time they were to
be rated as grown-up and educated cardinals. A brighter or prettier trio
I have not seen. I am almost positive there was but one family of
cardinals on the place; and if I am right, those youngsters had been
four weeks out of the nest before they took charge of their own food
supply. From what I have seen in the case of other young birds, I have
no doubt that is the fact.

X.

THE CARDINAL'S NEST.

While I had been studying four o'clock manners, grave and gay, other
things had happened. Most delightful, perhaps, was my acquaintance with
a cardinal family at home. From the first I had looked for a nest, and
had suffered two or three disappointments. One pair flaunted their
intentions by appearing on a tree before my window, "tsipping" with all
their might; she with her beak full of hay from the lawn below; he,
eager and devoted, assisting by his presence. The important and
consequential manner of a bird with building material in mouth is
amusing. She has no doubt that what she is about to do is the very most
momentous fact in the "Sublime Now" (as some college youth has it). Of
course I dropped everything and tried to follow the pair, at a distance
great enough not to disturb them, yet to keep in sight at least the
direction they took, for they are shy birds, an