Order Passeriformes: Family Fringillidae 

 Genera Richmondena through Pipilo (part) 



RICHMONDENA CARDINALIS CARDINALIS (Linnaeus) 



Eastern Cardinal 

 plates 1 and 2 



Habits 



As we travel southward from New England's ice and snow to meet 

 spring halfway, we are greeted by the loud jpeto, peto of the tufted 

 titmouse, the lively, striking song of the Carolina wren, and the rich, 

 whistUng notes of the cardinal redbird, three birds we rarely see 

 in New England. They seem to be welcoming us to the land of sun- 

 shine and flowers, and their music brings a heart-warming change 

 from the bleak and silent woods we have left behind. 



We formerly considered the cardinal a southern bird, a member of 

 the Carolinian fauna of the Austral Zone. Our 1886 Check-List gave 

 its range as only casual north of the valley of the Ohio River, which 

 forms the northern boundary of Kentucky; the 1895 edition extended 

 the range to the Great Lakes; and the 1910 edition included southern 

 Ontario and the southern Hudson River valley. 



During recent years, it has been gradually extending its range north- 

 ward. It is steadily increasing in abundance and has established 

 itself as a breeding bird in regions where it was formerly only a casual 

 visitor. 



The advance has been most rapid and most extensive in the Missis- 

 sippi VaUey and has occurred mainly during the last decade of the 

 past century and the first three decades of the present century. Much 

 of the advance seems to have come in winter, where winter feeding 

 has encouraged it to remain. In Iowa, where it is now a permanent 

 resident, Philip A. DuMont (1934) reports that in "1923 eight ob- 

 servers found thirty-six cardinals, and in 1929 seventeen observers 

 reported one himdred and forty-nine," on a Christmas census. 



For southern Ontario, where the cardinal is now well established 

 as a breeding bird, Saimders and Dale (1933) report: 



The first record for this species was one taken at London, on November 30th, 

 1896. * * * They remained of very rare or casual occurrence until 1910. * * * 

 Reports were infrequent during the next two or three years, but since about 1914 



1 



