excellent provider. The mother bird forgets her shyness and hops from
branch to branch in great animation, causing commotion to draw attention to
the fact that a feat has been satisfactorily accomplished.[23]

They are extremely fussy parents and will not allow any one [sic] or
anything to approach the next.[24] When rainy weather occurs the female
spreads her wings and keeps the nestlings wars and dry.[25] As the sun comes
out, like any good housewife, she becomes busy with the cleaning of the
nursery.[26]

When the mother thinks it time for the young to leave the nest she
encourages them with chirping sounds. Then with a worm in her mouth she
flys over the nest, and withdraws a little. Hunger gradually overcomes fear,
and enticed, the youngsters tumble from the paternal home. The male takes
them in charge for flying lessons and when they are safely launched he
rejoins his mate triumphantly, as she sits patiently on the second brood.[27]

Statistics gathered by the Experiment Station, University of Florida,
show the various insects that are a plague to the most important truck crops.
On information given by the Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Department
of Agriculture the cardinal is in the first rank of birds that feed on these
noxious pests.

While the young are in the next they require a soft diet and the
parents bring them a variety of beetles, any kind of caterpillars they