148 CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 



I do not know that any successful attempts have been made to 

 induce these birds to pair and breed in confinement; but I have 

 no doubt of its practicability by proper management. Some 

 months ago I placed a young unfledged Cow-bird (the Fringilla 

 pecoris of Turton), whose mother, like the Cuckoo of Europe, 

 abandons her eggs and progeny to the mercy and management 

 of other smaller birds, in the same cage with a Red-bird, which 

 fed and reared it with great tenderness. They both continue to 

 inhabit the same cage, and I have hopes that the Red-bird will 

 finish his pupil's education by teaching him his song. 



I must here remark, for the information of foreigners, that 

 the story told by Le Page du Pratz, in his History of Louisiana, 

 and which has been so often repeated by other writers, that the 

 Cardinal Grosbeak " collects together great hoards of maize and 

 " buck-wheat, often as much as a bushel, which it artfully co- 

 " vers with leaves and small twigs, leaving only a small hole 

 " for entrance into the magazine/' is entirely fabulous. 



This species is eight inches long, and eleven in extent; the 

 whole upper parts are a dull dusky red, except the sides of the 

 neck and head, which, as well as the whole lower parts, are 

 bright vermillion; chin, front and lores, black; the head is or- 

 namented with a high, pointed crest, which it frequently erects 

 in an almost perpendicular position; and can also flatten at plea- 

 sure, so as to be scarcely perceptible; the tail extends three 

 inches beyond the wings, and is nearly even at the end; the bill 

 is of a brilliant coralline colour, very thick and powerful for 

 breaking hard grain and seeds; the legs and feet a light clay 

 colour (not blood red as Buffon describes them); iris of the eye 

 dark hazel. The female is less than the male, has the upper 

 parts of a brownish olive or drab colour, the tail, wings and tip 

 of the crest excepted, which are nearly as red as those of the 

 male; the lores, front and chin, are light ash; breast and lower 

 parts a reddish drab; bill, legs and eyes, as those of the male; the 

 erest is shorter and less frequently raised. 



One peculiarity in the female of this species is, that she often 

 .sings nearly as well as the male. I do not know whether it be 



