EASTERN CARDINAL 3 



times male and female usually sang the same songs. When the 

 female changed the song, the male did too. Sometimes ihej would 

 sing in unison." 



They noted other types of behavior, as follows: 



Two pairs of cardinals were in one tree, the males chasing the females from 

 branch to branch. When the males alighted for a moment, their necks were 

 stretched out and their crests raised high so that they looked exceedingly long 

 and slender. They sang and swayed their bodies from side to side, frequently 

 bowing also. Soon one pair flew away and the male of the remaining pair flew 

 to the top of a high tree and sang with wings partly spread and drooping. He 

 sang the whoo-ett, whoo-ett, whoo-cit, tuer iuer tuer song. The female came to the 

 shrubbery below. The male sang low and soft. The female flew over the fence 

 and called until he came to her. * * * 



Another type of behavior is closely linked with the swaying of the exceedingly 

 slender body with pointed erect crest. The male may fly to the same limb on 

 which the female is perched, alighting usually higher up on the branch. Then 

 with his crest, neck and body extended, and singing very rapidly, he may step 

 sideways down the limb to the female. During this time he appears fairly to 

 slide down. If this process is interrupted by the female flying to another tree, 

 the male may pursue her flying directly towards her with outstretched crest and 

 neck, and singing on the wing. * * * 



Quite frequently the behavior just discussed ends with coition at the end of the 

 male's slide down the limb towards the female. 



They noted that the female took part in the courtship performance 

 by stretching out her neck as far as possible, and that both sexes 

 swaj^ed their bodies from side to side and both sang, often in unison. 



Verna R. Johnston (1944) wiites: "On Alarch 2, 1940, two male 

 cardinals chased one female up and down and around trees for twenty 

 minutes, the female alwaj-s in the lead. The two males flew at each 

 other several times, pecking and ruffling their feathers and uttering 

 an angry buzzing note when in combat. Several times the males 

 dashed headlong from the top branches of a tree toward the ground, 

 only to swoop up again when within six feet of it. When the female 

 stopped and perched in a tree, usually high up, the two males perched 

 close by and took turns singing, flying at each other and diving toward 

 the ground while the female watched them." 



Much of the singing and fighting is closely connected with the 

 establishing of the breeding territory. Mrs. Laskey (1944) saj^s: 

 "The groups and loose flocks, formed during fall and winter, disband 

 gradually as males choose territory and obtain mates. * * * 

 Cardinals do not defend territory so pugnaciously as Mockingbu'ds, 

 for example, do, but there is some mild fighting in spring. A mated 

 male will fly at an intruder of his own sex; a mated female will chase 

 another female, but each is usually tolerant of the opposite sex, 

 never becoming an ally of its mate against the intruder." 



Nesting. — Cardinals build their nests in a variety of situations, in 

 bushes, tangles of vines, saplings, and small trees, with no decided preference 



646-737— 68— pt 1 3 



