THE VIRGINIAN CARDINAL. 83 



protected and only canglit for the cage-bird fancy. Had been bred 

 in Holland a century and a half ago and later in England ; in 

 Germany, for the first time, by Mr. H. Leuckfeld in Nordhausen, 

 later by many other breeders. The hen builds the nest openly in 

 a bush, on a thickly branched horizontal bough, on a groundwork 

 of bents and moss, strips of paper, &c., with rootlets, bast-fibres, 

 threads, &c., carefully lined with agave-fibre. More rarely in a 

 Hartz cage open above, or a little basket woven of birch-twigs. The 

 love antics of the male consist in extraordinary dancing and singing. 

 The hen incubates alone, usually not fed by the male, the latter 

 however, guards the hatch. Time of incubation fourteen days. Young 

 fed by both parents ; leave the nest in about twenty-two days, 

 commonly sooner. Breeding season five to six weeks. Laying four 

 eggs, bluish, greenish, or yellowish white, with dark spots. Nestling 

 dmvn bluish. Young plumage duller than that of the female, without 

 red ; beak black-brown. Change of colour : In the fifth week the 

 reddish tint show up more strongly, the red characters appear, the 

 beak changes through dull yellow and yellowish red into red ; a 

 young male first becomes full}' red and his beak coral red in the 

 third year. ' Usually peaceable, but at nesting-time malicious, especially 

 towards its own kind ; in the bird-room devours the young out of 

 other nests, also kills old weakly birds, sometimes its own young ; 

 the latter occurs from the want of some kind of food, or the pair 

 is not sufficiently secure and undisturbed. It is best to breed them 

 in single pairs and separate the young as soon as a new brood 

 commences. Unassiiming, vigorotis ; must not be kept too warm, 

 otherwise convulsions. Suitable for naturalizing in our country ; has 

 wintered several times in the open, at Stettin an escaped pair nested 

 in the pine-forest.' ' 



Dr. W. J. Holland* sent me the following interesting account of 

 his experience with the Cardinal Grosbeak : 



" The Cardinal is an old acquaintance of mine. In the State of 

 North Carolina, where I spent some of the years of my boyhood, 

 this bird was very plentiful. In South-Western Pennsylvania, while 

 by no means uncommon, it is not nearly so abundant as in the 

 Carolinas. It, nevertheless, possesses a wide range upon the contin- 

 ent, and may be found from Ontario to Florida, and from the 

 Atlantic sea-board to the plains of Kansas and Nebraska. The nests, 

 of which I have seen a great many, are somewhat loosely constructed 

 of small twigs, the bark of grape-vines, and the leaves and stems 



* Chancellor of Western I" Diversity of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 



