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CHAPTER XXXII. 



THE RED-CRESTED GREY CARDINAL. 



THIS handsome bird is a native of Brazil, but nevertheless 

 perfectly hardy, enduring, in this country, our severest 

 winters out of doors with impunity. It breeds, moreover, 

 freely in a good-sized garden aviary, providing it is not 

 interfered with by other birds, and has a nice retired place 

 to build in. 



I am extremely partial to the Grey Cardinal, and have kept 

 some of them for a good many years: nor have I found them 

 to be at all deserving of the bad character so often given to 

 them by other connoisseurs, who seem to have been exceptionally 

 unfortunate in their experience with these birds. It is true 

 that during the breeding season it is not safe to keep two 

 pairs of them together, but at other times fifty will live in 

 perfect harmony in the same enclosure, or even cage, nor will 

 they, then, molest any other, even the smallest, bird. 



When the nesting passion is strong upon them, however, 

 they are as quarrelsome as Eobins, and that is saying a good 

 deal, and should on no account be kept with little birds. A 

 pair of Cockateels, or Pennants, or even Eedrumps may be 

 lodged with them, and they will not materially interfere 

 with one another; but Weavers, large or small, or Virginian 

 Nightingales, not of speak of Canaries et hoc genus omne, they 

 will at that season harass most unmercifully: but to give 

 them a bad character, and even call them cannibals, and other 

 hard names, for endeavouring, according to the light that is 

 in them, to protect their nest and young, and drive away 

 intruders, is, in my opinion, as unreasonable as it would be 

 to blame a man, the father of a family, for shooting a burglar 

 invading his premises in the middle of the night. 



