288 FRINGILLID^E I FINCHES. 



Being essentially a bird of the Carolinian Fauna, 

 the splendid Cardinal only occurs normally in the 

 lower Connecticut valley, in exceptional cases reach- 

 ing Massachusetts, beyond which it is hardly known to 

 have proceeded. Even in Connecticut it is one of the 

 rarest birds, though there scarcely to be considered as 

 merely "accidental." One who secures a Cardinal in 

 New England should make sure, if possible, that it is 

 not an escaped cage-bird, repeated cases of the cap- 

 ture of which have been reported. 



For its occurrence in Massachusetts, see Allen, Am. 

 Nat., iii, 1869, p. 635, and Bull. Essex Inst., x, 1878, 

 p. 18. A Nova Scotian case is reported by "Jones (Am. 

 Nat., v, 1871, p. 176). 



It is a wild, shy inhabitant of the thickest shrub- 

 bery, though- conspicuous even in such secluded re- 

 sorts by the intensity of its coloration, the power of 

 its voice, and the great activity of its disposition. It 

 lays rather a peculiar egg, some specimens resem- 

 bling those of a Night-hawk in coloration, others those 

 of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The ground is white, 

 spotted with any shade of brown from pale reddish 

 to dark chocolate, but the coloration is usually quite, 

 heavy, with many purplish-brown or stone-gray shell 

 markings. The markings vary from uniform fine dot- 

 ting or marbling to heavy spotting, but there are rarely 

 large blotches. The size is an inch or a little more,, 

 by rather less than three-fourths of an inch. The 

 nest, composed of strips of grapevine, or other pliable 

 bark, twigs, leaves, and grasses, is rather loosely 

 built, generally in a thicket of briars or in a low tree, 

 therefore near the ground, and preferably in the 

 vicinity of water. 



