Tlie Virginian Nirjlitingale. 123 



for more than fifteen years, and was an adult bird when it 

 came into his possession. 



Slightly larger than the Grey Cardinal, the Cardinal Gros- 

 beak is a much more brilliantly coloured bird: the male is 

 of a uniform deep red, with the exception of his face, which 

 is black: the crest can be raised and depressed at pleasure, 

 and altogether this Grosbeak forms a very striking object in 

 a garden aviary, where, providing he has a sufficiency of 

 animal food, he will do very well all the year round. 



The Cardinal Grosbeak, Coccothraustes Cardinalis; der rothe 

 Kardinal in German, and le Cardinal de Virginie in French, 

 is said to breed very freely in the aviary, but none of those 

 I have possessed ever evinced the least disposition to do so, 

 which is, perhaps, to be accounted for by the fact of their 

 not having a sufficiently secluded corner in which to establish 

 themselves. 



The female is reddish brown, and although not nearly as 

 showy and brilliant as her mate, is nevertheless a very pretty 

 bird. In my experience these Grosbeaks have been quiet and 

 peaceable, never interfering with any of their companions, 

 whom, indeed, they permitted to bully them, without the 

 least attempt at retaliation : but whether such a state of affairs 

 would have continued if they had made up their minds to go 

 to nest, I cannot say, but I do not considerable it probable. 



Acting on the recommendation of a recent writer on foreign 

 birds, who says they will agree perfectly well together, I 

 placed a pair of these birds in the same compartment of the 

 aviary with a pair of Grey Cardinals, but was obliged, almost 

 immediately, to remove them, or they would most certainly 

 have been killed. 



Mr. Wiener considers it is not difficult to breed this Gros- 

 beak, ^'for he will build his nest in a box, or after the 

 manner of Thrushes in a bush, and rear his brood with fair 

 success, unless too many mealworms be given : the eggs are 

 hatched in a fortnight, and both parents feed the young." 



