GENUS 35. LOXIA * GROSBEAK. 



SPECIES 1. L. CARDINALIS. 



CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 



[Plate XL Figs. 1 and 2.] 



-N. Syst. i, p. 300, JVo. 5. Le Gros-bec de Virginie, BRISS. 

 Orn. in, p. 255, JVo. 17. BUFF. m,jp. 458, pi. 28. PJ. W. 

 37. LATH. Syn. 11, p. 118, JVfo. 13. Cardinal, BROWN'S Jam. 

 2>. 647. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 5668,t 



THIS is one of our most common cage birds; and is very ge- 

 nerally known, not only in North America, but even in Europe; 

 numbers of them having been carried over both to France and 

 England, in which last country they are usually called Virginia 

 Nightingales. To this name, Dr. Latham observes, " they are 

 fully entitled," from the clearness and variety of their notes, 

 which, both in a wild and domestic state, are very various and 

 musical; many of them resemble the high notes of a fife, and 

 are nearly as loud. They are in song from March to September, 

 beginning at the first appearance of dawn, and repeating a fa- 

 vourite stanza, or passage, twenty or thirty times successively; 

 sometimes with little intermission for a whole morning together; 

 which, like a good story too often repeated, becomes at length 

 tiresome and insipid. But the sprightly figure, and gaudy plu- 

 mage of the Red-bird, his vivacity, strength of voice, and actual 



* This genus, as constituted by Brisson and at present adopted, does not in- 

 clude the four species described under it by Wilson. The three first have 

 been refered to the genus Frin%Ula, and the fourth, according to Temminck 

 belongs to the genus Pyrrhula of Brisson. 



t We add the following synonymes: Loxia cardinalis, GMEL. Sysl- 1, p. 841. 

 Cardinal Grosbeak, drct. Zool. No. 210, CATESB^ Car. i, t. p. 38. 



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