THE CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 
(Cardinalis virginia/nus.) 
is so familiar to all that he needs but little de- 
scription. Hehas been so much used as a cage- 
bird that many who have never seen the “flash of 
flame” in his “green retreat” have made his acquaint- 
ance behind the wires. He is beautiful even there, but 
can never give the delight that he does when his bright 
coat flits beside his dusky mate amid the dark green of 
a glossy oak. 
Once, while traveling in the country, I stopped for 
a few minutes at a house where a Redbird’s cage hung 
in the porch. The bird crept about slowly on his 
perch, and acted very like an old man who had lost 
much of his interest in life. Although he was plump 
and well-fed he had a faded appearance, only the tips of 
his feathers were red. 
I asked the woman what caused him to look so. 
She replied that he was growing gray, for he had been in 
the cage more than twenty years. She said that when 
she and her brothers were children her mother often 
came to their rooms in the morning and said, ‘‘ Don’t you 
hear Reddy? He says, ‘Get-up get-up get up’!” 
‘““We always thought that that was his morning 
song. My brothers have gone to other homes and 
142 
Gr: Cardinal or Redbird as he is commonly called 
