©araWse Circle 



less tendency to shade into gray or brown. 

 While our Northern variety has a dash of 

 jet-black in his face surrounding his red bill, 

 the fiery crest of his California and Texas 

 brother sometimes almost burns out this 

 soot, leaving but traces of it on the cheeks 

 and under the chin. Everywhere, however, 

 I see him haunting the same sort of places : 

 low underbrush, hillside thickets, vine- 

 tangles, ravines grown up with bushes — 

 a happy, courageous fellow, always busy, 

 and in springtime exceedingly noisy when 

 he mounts to the highest tip of a tree and 

 whistles his far-reaching, breezy call, which 

 sounds like "Wheecheer! wheecheer! 

 wheecheer! Wheet! " It is the very 

 boldest phrase heard in all our woods, some- 

 times changing to " Hoitee ! hoitee ! hoitee ! 

 Hoit! hoit! hoit! " often repeated. 



Dr. Coues and other ornithologists re- 

 port the cardinal grosbeak as a very shy 

 bird. I have not been able to confirm 

 this. Pairs of these lovely birds haunt 

 the trees and shrubbery of the garden 

 around my Indiana home, often lingering 

 near my study windows, even playing in a 

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