BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY 
SHADE 
Cardinal Grosbeak 
(Cardinal cardinalis) Finch family 
Called also: CRESTED REDBIRD; VIRGINIA REDBIRD; 
VIRGINIA NIGHTINGALE ; CARDINAL BIRD 
Length—8 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. 
Male—Brilliant cardinal ; chin and band around bill black. Beak 
stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings 
washed with gray. 
Female—Brownish yellow above, shading to gray below. Tail 
shorter than the male’s. Crest, wings, and tail reddish. 
Breast sometimes tinged with red. 
ange—Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becoming more 
and more common during the summer in States north of 
Virginia, especially in Ohio, south of which it is resident 
throughout the year. 
Migrations—Resident rather than migrating birds, remaining 
throughout the winter in localities where they have found 
their way. Travel in flocks. 
Among the numerous names by which this beautiful bird is 
known, it has become immortalized under the title of Mr. James 
Lane Allen’s exquisite book, ‘‘The Kentucky Cardinal.” Here, 
while we are given a most charmingly sympathetic, delicate ac- 
count of the bird ‘‘ who has only to be seen or heard, and Death 
adjusts an arrow,” it is the cardinal’s pathetic fate that impresses 
one most. Seen through less poetical eyes, however, the bird 
appears to be a haughty autocrat, a sort of ‘‘F. F. V.” among the 
feathered tribes, as, indeed, his title, ‘‘ Virginia redbird,” has been 
unkindly said to imply. Bearing himself with a refined and 
courtly dignity, not stooping to soil his feet by walking on the 
ground like the more democratic robin, or even condescending 
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