w which opened almost behind them. From that window
one could look into, and touch, if he desired, the little family. But no
one who lived there did desire (though I wish to record that one was a
boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught respect for the lives
even of birds), and these birds became so accustomed to their human
observers that they paid no attention to them.

The female cardinal is so dainty in looks and manner, so delicate in all
her ways, that one naturally expects her to build at least a neat and
comely nest, and I was surprised to see a rough-looking affair, similar
to the one already mentioned. This might be, in her case, because it was
the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the
first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own
use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch
for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made
of twigs and fibres of bark,--or what looked like that,--and was
strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger
than my little finger, and most of them much smaller.

On my second visit I was invited into the kitchen to see the family in
the rosebush. It appeared that this was "coming-off" day, and one little
cardinal had already taken his fate in his hands when I arrived, soon
after breakfast. He had progressed on the journey of life about one
foot; and a mere dot of a fellow he looked beside his parents, with a
downy fuzz on his head, which surrounded it like a halo, and no sign of
a crest. The three nestlings still at home were very restless,
crowding, and almost pushing each other out. They could well spare their
elder brother, for before he left he had walked all over them at his
pleasure; and how he could help it in those close quarters I do not see.

While I looked on, papa came with provisions. At one time the food
consisted of green worms about twice as large as a common knitting
needle. Three or four of them he held crosswise of his beak, and gave
one to each nestling. The next course was a big white grub, which he did
not divide, but gave to one, who had considerable difficulty in
swallowing it.

I said the birds did not notice the family, but they very quickly
recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal
way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and
I was unobtrusive, so they concluded to ignore m