THE SPARROW TRIBE AND ITS KIN 101 



The Cardinal 



Length — 8 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. 



Male — BrUUant or faded cardinal; chin and band around 

 bill black. Beak stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In 

 winter dress, wings washed with gray. 



Female — ^Dove color above, washed with dull red shading 

 to gray below. Tail shorter than male's. Crest, wings, 

 and tail reddish. Breast sometimes tinged with red. 



Range — ^Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becom- 

 ing more and more common dm-ing 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, usually 

 remaining in locaUties where they have found their way. 



Among the numerous names by which this brilliant bird 

 is known it has become immortalized under the title of Mr. 

 James Lane Allen's exquisite book, "The Kentucky Car- 

 dinal." Here, while we are given a most charmingly sym- 

 pathetic, delicate account of the bird "who has only to be 

 seen or heard, and Death adjusts an arrow," it is the car- 

 dinal's pathetic fate that impresses one most. Gene 

 Stratton-Porter in " The Song of the Cardinal " has written 

 a charming life study of him — really a bird novel — which 

 is less well known that many of that most popular author's 

 "best sellers." 



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 groimd like the 



