978 Report of State Geologist. 



28. That day, and for two weeks after, she sang sometimes a great 

 deal. July 13, 1896, I saw young which had just left the nest, and 

 August 28, of that year, I found a nest containing three eggs. To 

 one who has not visited the lower Ohio Valley, including the southern 

 part of the valleys of the "Whitewater and the Wabash, especially at 

 a season when the trees are leafless, it would be difficult to convey 

 any idea of the numbers of Cardinals that are to be found there. The 

 rougher land, overgrown with second-growth or briers, and the waste 

 land along streams, afford ah abundance of shelter, which will prob- 

 ably remain. While the quantity of food — seeds, wild fruits and in- 

 sects, added to the grains that are ungarnered or scattered by man — 

 affords them a good living, in winter they come about our homes and 

 feed upon the crumbs from the kitchen or pick up a share of the 

 wastes from the barnyard. It is no unusual thing, at that season, to 

 find from three to six pairs frequenting a comparatively small thicket 

 in a favorable locality, while almost every brier patch or clump of 

 bushes harbor a pair or two. 



They are easily tamed and in many localities are much sought, for 

 cage birds. In localities where I have been I do not think the prac- 

 tice of trapping them or robbing the nests of young birds is as com- 

 mon as it was some years ago. It should be discouraged by every one 

 and the offenders prosecuted. 



138. GKNns HABIA RErCHKNBACH. 



*231. (595). Habia ludoviciana (Linn.). 



Rose-breasted G-rosbeak. 



Adult Male. — Head, neck and back, glossy black; wings and tail, 

 black, the former barred with white, and primaries white at the baae, 

 the latter with outer tail feathers tipped with white on inner web; 

 breast and under wing coverts, bright rose-red or carmine; rest of un- 

 der parts and rump, white; bill, large, pale; feet, dark. Adult Fe- 

 male. — Above, grayish-brown, streaked with cream-buff and blacldsh; 

 stripe through center of crown, buff, and one over the eye, whitish; 

 wing coverts, tipped with white; below, white, tinged with buffy and 

 streaked with dusky; under wing coverts, saffron-yellow. Imma- 

 ture. — Similar to female, but with under wing coverts rose-red. 



Length, 7.00-8.50; wing, 3.90-4.15; tail, 3.25-3.55. 



Range. — America, from Ecuador to Labrador and Saskatchewan 

 west to eastern Kansas. Breeds from higher points of North Carolina 

 and central Indiana, north. Winters from Cuba and Mexico, south. 



