Conspicuously Red of any Shade 



below the level of the laurel bushes, the cardinal is literally a shin- 

 ing example of self-conscious superiority — a bird to call forth 

 respect and admiration rather than affection. But a group of 

 cardinals in a cedar tree in a snowy winter landscape makes us 

 forgetful of everything but their supreme beauty. 



As might be expected in one of the finch family, the cardinal 

 is a songster — the fact which, in connection with his lovely plu- 

 mage, accounts for the number of these birds shipped in cages to 

 Europe, where they are known as Virginia nightingales. Com- 

 mencing with a strong, rich whistle, like the high notes of a fife, 

 " Cheo-cbeo-cheo-cheo," repeated over and over as if to make per- 

 fect the start of a song he is about to sing, suddenly he stops, 

 and you learn that there is to be no glorious performance after all, 

 only a prelude to — nothing. The song, such as it is, begins, 

 with both male and female, in March, and lasts, with a brief in- 

 termission, until September — "the most melodious sigh," as Mr. 

 Allen calls it. Early in May the cardinals build a bulky and loosely 

 made nest, usually in the holly, laurel, or other evergreen shrubs 

 that they always love to frequent, especially if these are near 

 fields of corn or other grain. And often two broods in a year 

 come forth from the pale-gray, brown-marked eggs, bearing 

 what is literally for them the "fatal gift of beauty." 



Summer Tanager 



(Piranga rubra) Tanager family 



Called also: REDBIRD; SMOOTH-HEADED REDBIRD 



Length — 7. 5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. 



Male — Uniform red. Wings and tail like the body. 



Female— \iY>ptr parts yellowish olive-green; underneath inclining 

 to orange-yellow. 



Range — Tropical portions of two Americas and eastern United 

 States. Most common in Southern States. Rare north of 

 Pennsylvania. Winters in the tropics. 



Migrations— \n Southern States : April. October. Irregular mi- 

 grant north of the Carolinas. 



Thirty years ago, it is recorded that so far north as New Jer- 

 sey the summer redbird was quite as common as any of the 

 thrushes. In the South still there is scarcely an orchard that does 



216 



