FLORIDA CARDINAL 17 



male breaks into desultory singing at daybreak during the courtship 

 period, continuing into the late afternoon. The female sings on the 

 nest, but there is little singing after the eggs have hatched. In one 

 instance, a male was at the top of a large oak 175 feet distant from the 

 nest. In nest building, the male may accompany the female but does 

 not actually assist in the construction. One nest was found saddled 

 on a limb of a mango tree right against the trunk, anchored by sprouts, 

 5 feet above ground. The male does not incubate. Both sexes eat 

 the fecal matter — never take it away. The female is quite tame when 

 on the nest. 



Eggs. — The measurements of 40 eggs average 24.9 by 18.3 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 27.7 by 19.3, 

 21.8 by 17.6, and 22.8 by 17.0 millimeters. 



Distribution 



Range. — The Florida cardinal is resident from the eastern part of 

 the panhandle of northern Florida (Apalachicola) and southeastern 

 Georgia (Okefenokee Swamp, St. Marys) south through the Florida 

 Peninsula. 



Egg dates. — Florida: 74 records, March 30 to August 8; 30 records, 

 April 4 to April 24; 30 records, May 5 to May 25. 



RICHMONDENA CARDINALIS MAGNIROSTRIS (Bangs) 



Louisiana Cardinal 



Habits 



Outram Bangs (1903) gave this race the above name, based on a 

 series of 12 skins from West Baton Rouge Parish, La. The characters 

 given are: "Bill larger and heavier than in any of the other races" of 

 the species; and "otherwise, most like C. cardinalis jioridanus, but 

 wing slightly longer, tail shorter, and foot and tarsus larger. In 

 color the male has the same olivaceous edging to the feathers of the 

 back, but the red of the head and under parts is not so dark as in the 

 Florida bird, though decidedly more intense than is usual in C. 

 cardinalis cardinalis. The female is colored as in C. cardinalis 

 floridanus, the back being olivaceous and the under parts strongly 

 buffy; the middle of belly, however, is rather paler — more whitish. 



"In both sexes the area occupied by the capistrum is greater than 

 in the other races; and in the female the capistrum is not only more 

 extended but decidedly darker, more sooty grayish in color, and much 

 more conspicuous." 



