FOUR RED BIRDS. 127 



I never saw the attempt made, but I believe it can 

 baffle a sparrow-hawk, unless the latter has some very 

 unusual advantage. The red-bird, itself, is not strong 

 upon the wing, yet, as a dodger, it is nearly equal to a 

 humming-bird, and this compensates for the danger in- 

 cident to very bright coloring. 



The cardinal did not escape the notice of Peter Kalm, 

 who, however, tells us very little of the bird as he saw 

 it, in 1749. He refers to its fine vocal powers and the 

 fact that many were shipped to London ; also that it 

 was an enemy of honey-bees, preying largely upon 

 them. It would be an interesting fact to determine if 

 there has been any change in habit, in this respect. I 

 certainly never should have supposed it had any predi- 

 lection for bees, and never knew it to capture one, al- 

 though I have known a pair to have a nest within fifty 

 yards of a bench of beehives. I have no data bearing 

 on this point, but must express ray doubt as to the 

 habit being common to them. It is not an uncommon 

 circumstance for individual birds to develop very pe- 

 culiar tastes, just as this happens in mankind, but that 

 all cardinals are bee-eaters is questionable, to say the 

 least. 



Stranger than all, I find in a back volume of " Science 

 Gossip" (1881), the utterly absurd statement that these 

 birds are " pests," and should not be introduced into 

 other countries, and again, that they are "adepts at eat- 

 ing cherries and shelling peas." These statements are 

 said to be based upon personal observation. If so, then 

 the cardinal of New Jersey is greatly different from 

 the cardinal of Virginia, a fact that has not been re- 



