﻿THE CARDINA L* 



By WILLIAM DUTCHER 



President of National Association of Audubon Societies 



/Rational &$sotiation of jau&ubon Societies 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 18 



The Cardinal is one of the most brilliant of American birds: the name 

 is derived from its color, which is a deep red, somewhat less vivid than scar- 

 let. This color is supposed to be named from the vestments of a cardinal, an 

 ecclesiastic of high rank in the Roman Church. The female bird, while 

 not so conspicuous as her mate, is clad in a rich brown with just enough of 

 red to light it up. They are indeed a striking pair, and wherever they are 

 found soon become favorites. They are known as Cardinal Grosbeaks, 

 Red-birds, Crested Red-birds, Virginia Nightingales, and lately James Lane 

 Allen has made familiar Kentucky Cardinal. The illustration shows the 

 Cardinal's most prominent features, — a very large strong bill, a conspicuous 

 crest, which can be erected or depressed at will, short rounded wings, and a 

 long tail. The length of the Cardinal is a little over eight inches from tip 

 of bill to end of tail. 



Once seen, the Cardinal can never be mistaken for any other bird, espe- 

 cially as its plumage virtually never changes but remains much the same at 

 all seasons of the year. Cardinals are resident wherever they are found, and 

 their center of abundance is in the southern portion of the United States. 

 The northern limit of its range is approximately a line drawn from a point in 

 the vicinity of New York City, westward to southeastern Nebraska, thence 

 southward to Texas, where it is found in the greater part of the state. 

 These lines are arbitrary, but are given in order that a teacher may show 

 scholars in a general way where Cardinals can be found. Further, they 

 give teachers and pupils who reside outside these limits an opportunity to 

 extend the Cardinal's known range by proving that it lives in their locality. 



There have been records of the Cardinal made as far north as Nova 

 Scotia and southern Ontario,' but it is believed that these were escaped cage- 

 birds,t the Cardinal, probably owing to its beauty of plumage and rich- 

 ness of song, having long been a favorite cage-bird. Alexander Wilson, in 

 'American Ornithology' (Vol. II, page 145), which was published in 

 1828, says: "This is one of our most common cage-birds, and is very gen- 

 erally known, not only in North America, but even in Europe; numbers of 



*THE CARDINAL 

 Order — Passer es Family — Fr'ingilltda: 



Genus — Cardinalis Species — Cardinal'is 



tRead the charming story "The Cardinal at the Hub " in BiRD-I.ORE, Vol. I, page 8;, by Ella Gilbert Ives. 



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