SOME MINOR SONG-BIRDS. 159 



studied than his sweet and powerful vocaliza 

 tion. His notes are few, but the compass and 

 volume of his voice, and the vivid force of ex 

 pression he commands, are without rival. 

 Not even the mocking-bird can equal him in 

 his one circle of execution. He sings with 

 true American energy, flinging out his notes 

 as if from a clarion. His attitudes are those 

 of unbounded self-confidence ; he appears to 

 claim the whole world as his own, as he stands 

 bolt upright on a bough, his crest erect, his 

 bold eyes flashing, and his voice leaping out 

 with the impulse of a diminutive steam-whistle. 

 He is a wary, shy, swift bird, but his color ex 

 poses him to the watchful collector, who is 

 ever eager to take him. The cardinal s nest 

 is well-built, usually set in a tangled place of 

 a thicket. Its eggs are of a mottled reddish- 

 brown color. 



In the region of Tallulah Falls I met with 

 an old man whose chief business was snaring 

 red-birds (cardinals) for the sake of their skins, 

 which he sold to a New York firm for use in 

 millinery decorations. Most of his work was 

 done in the mating season, when with a trained 

 decoy-bird and a cage furnished with side- 

 springes, he took great numbers. The method 

 was to hang the cage, of open wire-work, with 

 a live male bird in it, on a bough in the midst 

 of a thicket. The springes at the sides of the 

 cage were so arranged that no sooner did a 

 visiting bird alight thereon than he was caught. 

 The captive left alone calls loudly and is an 

 swered by a female who comes near. This 

 excites the jealousy of her lord, who dashes at 

 the cage and dies. The old man had four of 

 these murderous contrivances, and was reaping 



