CHAPTER XXIII
CARDINAL BABIES
Bird-lovers who have long waited for the advent of certain young birds will understand my interest in this little fellow. I called him or her, for I did not know the sex, Natal or Natalie, for he was hatched on the twenty-first of June, the natal day of Halifax.
The last thing at night and the first thing in the morning I looked out to the trees on the veranda to see if he were quite safe and comfortable, and I slept with my window wide open so that I could hear any disturbance in the night.
One very bright moonlight night last summer I heard my handsome robin Dixie give a loud shriek of dismay, and begin to fly nervously about the veranda. I find robins are nervous sleepers. The least thing wakens them, and I lay for a few seconds listening to him calling and flying to and fro. When he began to rouse the other birds I sprang up and went softly to the window. I could see nothing, so I spoke to the birds, and when they quieted down, went back to bed.
Presently he started again, and this time some of the birds, instead of merely flying to and fro, began to throw themselves against the wire netting of the veranda.
A panic in an aviary is a serious thing, especially if there are several hundreds of birds who lose their heads at the same time. In my aviary I always have dark corners where birds can fly and hide. I would never put birds under a transparent roof with no place of retreat.
However, this night panic was different from a fright by day. The birds had been violently awakened from sleep, and had completely lost their heads. They had not sense enough to keep in the protected corners when they got in them. Something unforeseen and startling had occurred, and again I crept softly to the window. I could see nothing out of the way. Of course my mind went to the cats, but since I had had the board put around the elevator, no cat had ascended it.
Finally, I noticed a dark mass behind one of the trees. It was motionless, and I concluded that it was one of the bunches of seed-grass I tossed among the branches for the birds. However, to make sure, I would examine it. I stole across the veranda, and there outside the netting, perched on the railing, was a large black cat looking me calmly in the eyes.
I told her what I thought of her and her family and she took it gracefully. Then I said “Scat,” and told her to go down whatever way she had come up.