One
was tried in gray binding, the colour of the female cardinal, with
the red male used as an inset. Another was woodsgreen with the red
male, and another red with a wild rose design stamped in. There is a
British edition published by Hodder and Stoughton. All of these had
the author's own illustrations which authorities agree are the
most complete studies of the home life and relations of a pair of
birds ever published.
The story of these illustrations in "The Cardinal" and how the
author got them will be a revelation to most readers. Mrs. Porter
set out to make this the most complete set of bird illustrations
ever secured, in an effort to awaken people to the wonder and
beauty and value of the birds. She had worked around half a dozen
nests for two years and had carried a lemon tree from her
conservatory to the location of one nest, buried the tub, and
introduced the branches among those the birds used in approaching
their home that she might secure proper illustrations for the
opening chapter, which was placed in the South. When the complete
bird series was finished, the difficult work over, and there
remained only a few characteristic Wabash River studies of flowers,
vines, and bushes for chapter tail pieces to be secured, the author
"met her Jonah," and her escape was little short of a miracle.
After a particularly strenuous spring afield, one teeming day in
early August she spent the morning in the river bottom beside the
Wabash.
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