DESCEIPTIVE LIST 253 



bunch of briars, generally at a height of from two to four feet, but occasionally 

 higher, and we have one record of a nest situated at a height of twelve feet. The 

 eggs are commonly three in number, but there are two sets of four in the State 

 Museum, collected by Dr. Smithwick in Bertie County. They are of a white 

 ground, marked with spots of reddish brown, gray and lavender, usually pretty well 

 scattered over the whole surface, but sometimes clustered about the larger end. 

 Size 1.00 x .75. They are laid from late April to early July. 



FIG. 201. CARDINAL. 



The Cardinal, like the Towhee, is preeminently a thicket-haunting bird, but does 

 not spend so much of its time on the ground, apparently preferring to eat berries 

 in the top of a tree rather than gather food on the earth at its base. Its song is a 

 series of loud, clear whistles. 



Genus Zamelodia (Coues) 

 249. Zamelodia ludoviciana (Linn.). ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



Description. Male with head, neck and upperparts mostly black, with some white on wings, 

 tail, and rump; breast and under wing-coverts bright rose-red. Female olive-brown, much 

 streaked, with the under wing-coverts saffron-yellow; head with whitish stripes. Extreme meas- 

 urements of four Rose-breasted Grosbeaks from North Carolina: L., 7.85-8.25; W., 3.95-4.45; 

 T., 2.85-3.15. 



Range. Eastern North America, breeding from northern United States northward. 



Range in North Carolina. A resident in the mountains west of the Blue Ridge, a rare migrant 

 in the rest of the State. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a common bird during the summer months in at 

 least portions of the mountain region, arriving from the south late in April, and 

 has been noted in Buncombe County as late as October 23. It breeds mainly at an 

 elevation of 3,000 feet and upward. The nests are flat, shallow structures, com- 

 posed of small twigs, vegetable fibers and grass, and are built in a bush or tree. Of 

 four nests found by Cairns in Buncombe County, one was in a small bush three 

 feet up, another twenty feet high in a haw tree, and the remaining two respectively 



