According to Messrs. Baird and Ridgway, in their ' History of North 

 American Birds ' 1874, " In New England and the more Northern 

 States it is chiefly known by its reputation as a cage-bird, both its bright 

 plumage and its sweet song giving it a high value. It is a very rare and 

 only an accidental visitor of Massachusetts, though a pair was once 

 known to spend the summer and to rear its brood in the Botanical Gardens 

 of Harvard College in Cambridge. A single specimen of this bird was 

 obtained near Duenas, Guatemala, by Mr. Osbert Salvin. 



" In its cage-life the cardinal soon becomes contented and tame, and 

 will live many years in confinement. 



" In Florida Mr. Audubon found these birds mated by the 8th 

 of February. The nest is built in bushes, among briars, or in 

 low trees, and in various situations, the middle of a field, near a fence, 

 or in the interior of a thicket, and usually not far from running 

 water. It has even been placed in the garden close to the planter's 

 house. It is loosely built of dry leaves and twigs, with a large propor- 

 tion of dry grasses and strips of the bark of grapevines. Within, it is 

 finished and lined with finer stems of grasses wrought into a circular 

 form. There are usually two, and in the more Southern States three, 

 broods in a season. 



" The eggs of this species are of an oblong-oval shape, with but little 

 difference at either end. Their ground-color appears to be white, but is 

 generally so thickly marked with spots of ashy-brown and faint lavender 

 tints, as to permit but little of its ground to be seen. The eggs vary 

 greatly in size, ranging from 1"10 inches to *98 of an inch in length and 

 from -80 to -78 in breadth." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser says this species, is " Common throughout 

 Texas during the summer and indeed almost all the year, ex- 

 cepting where Pi/rrhiiloxia sinuata is found. In such localities it 

 is not so abundant as that bird. At Matamoras it is very common, 

 and may be seen, caged, in almost every Mexican hut. I took 

 quantities of the eggs of this species near San Antonio in April and 

 May." 



