CARDINAL. 



shreds of bark, and rootlets, lined with dried grasses and 

 soft material, generally situated in low bushes. Egg, blue- 

 white speckled with burnt umber or cinnamon brown. 



The song of the Cardinal is composed of a series of loud, 

 clear notes many of them without overtones, some deliv- 

 ered sharply staccato, and still others with a sound like 

 quit-chee-ee, or, as Olive Thome Miller describes it," Three 

 cheers" but I make the song as I heard it from a caged 

 bird, like this, every one of the notes in fairly accurate 

 pitch, and the intervals as distinct most of them as 

 those of the White-throated Sparrow. 



Jlllegro. **' 8v . d 



Pb 



There is a sweetness of tone to some of the notes resem- 

 bling that in the trained whistle of the European Bullfinch 

 really a dulcet whistle, and also an overtone which is identi- 

 cal with that of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, hence the 

 frequent use by different authors responsible for syllabic 

 forms of the consonants ch. The Cardinal's song is no 

 doubt best studied west of the Alleghanies in Kentucky 

 and Tennessee where the bird is quite common. Bradford 

 Torrey, always clever in his verbal description of bird- 

 song, writes, "I stopped long enough to enjoy the music 

 of a master Cardinal, a bewitching song, and, as I 

 thought, original: birdy, birdy, repeated about ten times 

 in the sweetest of whistles, and then a sudden descent in 

 the pitch, and the same syllables over again. ... If the 

 Tanager could whistle like the Cardinal, our New England 

 woods would have a bird to brag of." Here, without 

 question, is a translation of those syllables into musical 

 terms in other words two whistled notes separated by the 

 interval of a minor third: 



Jlllegro. 



'Twice 8vd 



irdy, birdy, birdy, birdy, birdy, birdy, 

 291 



