CARDINAL. 



REDBIRD. 

 Cardinalis CARDINALIS. 



Char. Head with conspicuous crest. Male : above, bright vermi- 

 lion, shaded with gray on the back; beneath, paler; forehead and throat 

 black. Female: above, olive gray; beneath, buffy. Young similar to 

 female, but duller. Length about 8 to 8^ inches. 



A^est. In a variety of situations, most frequently amid a thicket of 

 brambles or in a low tree ; loosely made of twigs, strips of grape-vine, 

 dry grass, weed-stems, lined with fine grass or roots, sometimes with 

 hair. 



Eggs. 3-5; dull white or tinged with blue, green, or bufif; spotted 

 •with reddish brown and lilac; i.oo X 0.75. 



These splendid and not uncommon songsters chiefly reside 

 in the warmer and more temperate parts of the United States 

 from New York to Florida, and a few stragglers even proceed 

 as far to the north as Salem in Massachusetts. They also 

 inhabit the Mexican provinces, and are met with south as far 

 as Carthagena ; adventurously crossing the intervening ocean, 

 they are likewise numerous in the little temperate Bermuda 

 islands, but do not apparently exist in any of the West Indies. 

 As might be supposed, from the range already stated, the Red- 

 birds are not uncommon throughout Louisiana, Missouri, and 

 Arkansas Territory. Most of those which pass the summer in 



