192 CARDINAL. 



Kingbirds, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens, and even Blue Jays were attacking a large 

 snake which lay coiled around a Cardinal's nest. One of the young, almost fully fledged, 

 was between the jaws of the snake. A stroke with a) stick disabled the hideous reptile 

 and a second killed it. When the birds saw their enemy dead on the ground, they 

 returned to their nesting places with calls of victory. Only the Cardinals hopped around 

 in great distress, uttering mournful notes and bemoaning the loss of one of their young. 

 At the age of two or three months the young Cardinals usually congregate with others 

 of their species and roost in gi-eat number in the dense evergreen thickets of the cypress 

 swamps, in cane-brakes, and other more or less inacessible localities. During the approach 

 of evening they fly singly or in small flocks to these roosts. Nuttall made the same 

 observation in South Carolina. "At all times," he writes, "they appear to have a 

 predilection for watery groves, and shaded running streams, abounding with evergreens 

 and fragrant magnolias, in which they are so frequent as to be almost concomitant 

 with the scene. But though they usually live only in families or pairs, and at all times 

 disperse into these selective groups, yet in severe weather, at sunset, in South Carolina, 

 I observed a flock passing to a roost in a neighboring swamp and bushy lagoon, which 

 continued, in lengthened file, to fly over my head at a considerable height for more 

 than twenty minutes together. The beautiful procession, illumined by the last rays of 

 the setting sun, was incomparably splendid as the shifting shadowy light at quick inter- 

 vals flashed upon their brilliant livery. They had been observed to pass in this manner 

 to their roost for a considerable time, and, at day-break, they were seen again to pro- 

 ceed and disperse for subsistence. How long this timid and gregarious habit continues, 

 I cannot pretend to say; but by the first week in February the song of the Redbird 

 was almost daily heard. As the season advances, roving pairs, living, as it w^ere, only 

 with and for each other, flit from place to place; following also their favorite insect or 

 vegetable fare. ..." 



The Cardinal Grosbeak is an exquisite songster, and with the exception of the 

 Mockingbird none of our songbirds is so famous. Some writers on cage birds have 

 pronounced the song as moiiotonous and too loud, but they have certainly not heard 

 good singers in their native wilds. "The verdict," Prof. Robert Ridgway adds, "is un- 

 doubtedly a just one when applied to many that we have heard ; but there is probably 

 more individual variation in quality of song than there is in any other. We have 

 listened with peculiar pleasure to some whose vocal performance w^as characterized by 

 a clearness and mellow^ richness of tone, a tender and passionate expression, and per- 

 sistent vigor, that altogether were wholly unique. Even the females are good singers, 

 though as a rule inferior to the males, and it is extremely probable that the impressions 

 which some writers have received were derived from the songs of birds of this sex." 



Audubon's description of the song is so true, and at the same time so poetical, 

 that I would deem this life history incomplete, should I neglect to quote from it. "Its 

 song is at first loud and clear, resembling the finest sounds produced by the flageolet, 

 and gradually descends into more marked and continued cadences, until it dies away in 

 the air around. During the love season the song is emitted with increased emphasis 

 by this proud musician, who, as if aware of his powers, swells his throat, spreads his 

 rosy tail, droops his wings, and leans alternately to the right and left, as if on the eve 



