BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY 

 SHADE 



Cardinal Grosbeak 



(Cardinal cardinalis) Finch family 



Called also: CRESTED REDBIRD ; VIRGINIA REDBIRD ; 

 VIRGINIA NIGHTINGALE ; CARDINAL BIRD 



Length — 8 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. 



Male — Brilliant cardinal ; chin and band around bill black. Beak 



stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings 



washed with gray. 

 Female — Brownish yellow above, shading to gray below. Tail 



shorter than the male's. Crest, wings, and tail reddish. 



Breast sometimes tinged with red. 

 Range — Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becoming more 



and more common during the summer in States north of 



Virginia, especially in Ohio, south of which it is resident 



throughout the year. 

 Migrations— Resident rather than migrating birds, remaining 



throughout the winter in localities where they have found 



their way. Travel in flocks. 



Among the numerous names by which this beautiful bird is 

 known, it has become immortalized under the title of Mr. James 

 Lane Allen's exquisite book, "The Kentucky Cardinal." Here, 

 while we are given a most charmingly sympathetic, delicate ac- 

 count of the bird " who has only to be seen or heard, and Death 

 adjusts an arrow," it is the cardinal's pathetic fate that impresses 

 one most. Seen through less poetical eyes, however, the bird 

 appears to be a haughty autocrat, a sort of " P. F. V." among the 

 feathered tribes, as, indeed, his title, " Virginia redbird," has been 

 unkindly said to imply. Bearing himself with a refined and 

 courtly dignity, not stooping to soil his feet by walking on the 

 ground like the more democratic robin, or even condescending 



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