CARDINAL. 



185 



the latter, destroy a good many of their young as well as the eggs. The shrill cry of 

 alarm uttered by these birds when in distress, was more than once heard by me, when 

 still quite a distance from the nest, due no doubt to the presence of some other intruder 

 than myself I frequently found broken egg-shells lying at the foot of the empty nest, 

 where a day or two previously! had seen a single egg and had left it for the set to be 

 completed." 



NAMES : Abert's Towhee, Gray Towhee. 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES: PIPILO ABERTI Baird (1852). 



DESCRIPTION: Upper parts, pale brownish-red, brighter beneath and more ochraceous; sides of head and 

 chin, dark brown; bill and legs, yellowish. 



Length, 9.00 inches; wing, 3.70; tail, 4.85 inches. 



CARDINAL. 



Carditialis cardinalis Lichtenstein. 



Plate XXVI. Fig. 3 and 4. 



When April woods were budding, 



And wild-flcwers blooming brigbt, 

 And wide the sun was flooding 



The world with -warmth and light; 

 When birds abroad were winging 



Their way without a fear, 

 1 heard a clear voice singing. 



"What cheer! what cheer! what cheer!" 



It came from one apparelled 



As in a robe of fire : 

 No bird so gaily carolled 



Of all the woodland choir, 

 A living coal seemed blazing 



Where he, in thicket near, 

 Was Nature's joyance praising — 



"What cheer! what cheer! what cheer!" 



No marvel that so gaily 



His madrigal resounds! — 

 When new flowers open daily, 



And new-bom life abounds ; 

 When in their course untrammelled 



Glide on the brooklets clear, 

 Their banks with moss enamelled, 



"What cheer! what cheer! what cheer!" 



In crowded streets lurks sadness, 



E'en on the brightest days; 

 Methinks 'tis only gladness 



That haunts the woodland ways: 

 No hate, no grief, no quarrels, 



No scornful brows are here; 

 And loud my Redbird carols, 



"What cheer! what cheer! what cheer!" 



Would we forth oftener wander— 



We, long in houses pent — 

 On Nature gaze and ponder. 



Beneath the sky's blue tent, 

 'Twould heal the mind's diseases — 



Refresh our hearts grown sere: 

 In woods, birds, brooks, and breezes 



"What cheer! what cheer! what cheer!" 



W. .L,. Shoemaker. 



IJ^HE Cardinal, known also as the Cardinal Redbird, Cardinal Grosbeak, Cardinal- 

 bird, and Redbird, is one of the jewels of our bird-fauna, being incomparable in 

 the combination of proud bearing and gaudy coloring, and unexcelled in certain qualities 

 of its song.* Few birds iriipart their haunts with such life, beauty, and poetry than 

 this brilliant songster, one of the most famous among birds and highly prized by all 

 bird lovers. Wherever it occurs in our southern States it is a conspicuous and charac- 



* See Ridgway's "Ornithology of Illinois," Vol. I, p. 295. 



24 



