CARDINALS. 109 



CARDINALS. 



THE Red Cardinal, Cardinal Grosbeak, Reclbird, and Virginia Nightingale are 

 some of the more common names applied to the bird whose full figure is shown in 

 the cut. He is a large, strongly built bird, measuring eight inches in length. His 

 brilliant scarlet coat and jaunty pointed crest easily distinguish him from the 

 other American bird-vocalists. The following is an exact description of the male 

 bird's plumage. The entire upper parts of the body are of a dusky red ; the sides 

 of the neck and head, and the lower parts of the body, are of a brilliant vermilion 

 color ; the chin and lower forehead are velvety black. The head is ornamented 

 with a high, pointed crest, which the bird can raise or lower at pleasure. The bill 

 resembles a beautiful piece of coral in color, and is very thick and powerful, which 

 renders it easy for him to break the hardest kinds of grain or seeds, and which gives 

 him the title, in some places, of " corn- cracker." The legs and feet are a light 

 clay color. The female is of a brownish olive or drab color, of a deeper shade in the 

 upper parts of the body than in the lower: the tips of. the tail-feathers, the wings, 

 and crest, are a dull red. 



The birds of this species are found in immense numbers throughout the Southern 

 and Western parts of the United States, but are rarely caught north of Pennsyl- 

 vania. There were formerly odd cases where these birds bred as far north as Nova 

 Scotia, but it was probably the result of a pair escaping from a cage. Although a 

 very hardy class of birds, being capable of withstanding the rigors of a Northern 

 winter as well as any cage-bird, they seem to naturally thrive better in the 

 Southern States, where they are trapped in immense numbers. Early in May, in 

 that climate, they build their nests in cedars or in laurel bushes. The outside is 

 constructed of small twigs, and tops of dry weeds, and within are slips of vine- 

 barks : the whole is lined with stalks of fine grass. The female lays four eggs, 

 and there are usually two broods in a season. These birds breed in large cages or 

 rooms if furnished with bushes and other suitable material. The male is often 

 used to rear nests of young Canaries deserted by their parents. He may be put 

 into a cage with a nest of very young Canaries, and will feed them as carefully as 

 any female Canary possibly could, and watch over them as tenderly as though they 

 were his own. He anticipates their every want, and gives them instructions, not 

 only in flying, but in singing songs very different from the ordinary Canary-song in 

 style, modulation, and notes. He has patience inexhaustible. The young, unculti- 

 vated pupils struggle hard to catch his notes, and their renderings of the songs lie 

 whistles sound very odd : a listener is often compelled to laugh at the many ineffec- 

 tual attempts the Canaries make before they succeed in singing well even the first 

 bar of his tk Wake, Brothers ! " 



