16 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pabt i 



lUCHMONDENA CARDINALIS FLORIDANA (Ridgway) 



Florida Cardinal 



PLATE 2 



Habits 



Ridgway (1901) describes the cardinal of peninsular Florida as simi- 

 lar to the eastern cardinal, "but decidedly smaller and darker; adult 

 male with terminal margins of feathers of back, etc., distinctly oliva- 

 ceous instead of gray, the red of the under parts, etc., deeper or darker; 

 without the purity of red of western (Mississippi Valley and Texan) 

 specimens; adult female with upper parts more distinctly olivaceous 

 and under parts more tawny." 



This cardinal is an abundant resident throughout the peninsula of 

 Florida, as far west on the Gulf coast as Apalachicola and on many of 

 the Keys, as well as in southeastern Georgia. In northwestern Florida 

 it is replaced by the eastern cardinal, with which this race intergrades 

 on the border of its range. 



Arthur H. Howell (1932) says that it "is found in a number of dif- 

 ferent habitats, but seems to require thickets, or at least bushes, as an 

 essential feature of its environment. The birds often select village 

 gardens or dooryards for their home, and they are equally contented 

 in the dense hammocks overgrown with cactus and lianas near Cape 

 Sable. They follow the canals into the Everglades, and have become 

 domiciled in the bushes growing on their banks. They are common in 

 the deep, timbered swamps along the rivers in northwestern Florida, 

 as well as in the custard-apple jungle on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. 

 Even on the big prairies and in the pine woods they are usually found 

 wherever hammock conditions, with undergrowth occur." 



Phyrne S. Russell (1951) watched several of these birds snipping off 

 blossoms of "tm-k's cap" or "sleeping hibiscus," Malvaviscus arboreus 

 and holding them in the uptUted beak. Examination of discarded 

 blossoms showed that the calyx was slashed just where the petiole 

 was attached to the sepals. 



Nesting. — Howell (1932) continues: "Nesting begins about the first 

 of April and may continue to July. The nests are usually from 2 to 8 

 feet from the ground, placed in palmetto or oak bushes, small orange 

 trees, or clumps of vines. The eggs usually number 3 — rarely 4. A 

 nest found in a hammock near Brooksville, May 17, 1929, was com- 

 posed largely of Spanish moss, and placed 7 feet up in a small sapling; 

 the female bird was sitting on the nest, with her wings spread widely 

 to protect the young from falling rain." 



Donald J. Nicholson made a detailed study in 1954. He writes that 

 singing commences the second — even the first week in January. The 



