Plate XXII. 



GARDINWS VIRGINI/^NUS-Gardiml Redbird. 



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This beautiful Grosbeak is sufficiently hardy to endure the coldest weather and deepest snows of 

 this latitude. Being granivorous, a good sustenance is easily gained from the cornfield and cribs of corn, 

 even in the most unfavorable seasons. With the return of spring, a new energy seems to enter the song 

 of the Redbird; for hours at a time he now whistles his loudest notes; nor later do the duties of the 

 household lessen his splendid performances. By the time the leaves have put forth upon the maples, a 

 mate has been chosen, and the business of the summer is seriously contemplated. A few years ago I 

 found young birds large enough to fly on the fourteenth of May. But this is exceptionally early. Nest- 

 building generally occurs between the first and twentieth of May. Sometimes, however, it is much later. 

 Occasionally two broods may be raised by a single pair during the season. 



LOCALITY: 



Wherever trees abound with underbrush, the nest may be built. There seems to be no preference 

 between river-bottoms and uplands. It is usually situated in a thicket of briers or other bushes, or 

 upon a low tree, either in the interior or about the border of a woods. Sometimes it is placed among 

 the stems of the wild grape-vine, or close to the trunk of a large tree. In towns, the birds build in 

 evergreens and ornamental bushes. 



POSITIOE" : 



The nest commonly rests upon a tangled mass of horizontal stems, or upon two or three horizontal 

 branches ; but sometimes it is in a perpendicular fork having a large angle. When it is placed close to 

 a tree-trunk, it is supported either by short shoots or by thorns. Its distance from the ground rarely 

 exceeds ten feet ; ordinarily it is between three and four feet. 



MATERIALS : 



A large number of nests collected during the last ten years, within a radius of a dozen miles of 

 Circleville, are very similar to each other in materials. The foundation and superstructure of these nests 

 are composed principally of long, slender weed-stems of various kinds, together with strips of grape-vine 

 bark, in varying quantities. The lining consists of pieces of a slender vine of a pinkish-gray or brown 

 tint. Old leaves, strips of corn-husks or blades, and weed-fibres now and then enter into the foundation 

 or superstructure, and occasionally the superstructure is composed entirely of strips of grape-vine bark. 

 The diameter of the cavity averages about three inches, but it may vary a quarter of an inch on either 

 side of this measurement. The depth of cavity averages an inch and one-half, but it may be much 

 shallower. One nest which I remember to have seen, was nearly flat on top. 



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