196 CARDINAL. 



IV. Bird'ie, bird'ie, bird'ie, — tchew, tchew, tcbew, tchew. 

 V. Bird'ie, — bird'ie, bird'ie, bird'ie, bird'ie, bird'ie. 



VI. Whoy'it,— whoy'it, wboy'et, wboy'et, chichichicbicbichi (a jingling trill, 

 so long continued that it apparently ended only when the singer 

 became 'out of breath'). 



"The notes of many Cardinal Grosbeaks are clear and tender — far sweeter than the 

 mellowest notes of fife or flageolet." 



During summer, especially in the late afternoon, the Cardinals are often seen dusting 

 themselves in the country roads, near Osage orange and Cherokee rose hedges. They 

 are also exceedingly fond of bathing and are therefore rarely found far from the water. 

 This bathing is usually done in the early morning hours. After their bath they mount 

 the top of a bush, a dry branch or a fence, preening their wing and tail-feathers and 

 sunning themselves until the plumage is dry. 



The flight is low but rapid. It is rarely continued over a large tree and bushless 

 space and never high in the air, being performed in glidings and jerks of the tail. The 

 bird usually flies from bush to bush or from thicket to thicket. When alighted the crest 

 is raised and the tail frequently jerked. On the ground it is perfectly at home, although 

 its movements appear to be awkward. Its motions among the bushes and thickets are 

 rapid and graceful. 



Most of its food is gathered from the ground. It usually sits on one place, search- 

 ing it thoroughly for seeds and insects, and then hopping to another spot where it con- 

 tinues its search for fbod. The latter consists during the spring and summer months 

 almost entirely of insects and their larvas. In autumn and winter berries and seeds are 

 added to the bill of fare. The Cardinals are very fottd of grasshoppers, and at times 

 they scarcely touch anything else. The aromatic berries of the Mexican- mulberry 

 {Callicarpa Americana) are greatly relished, also thost of the mulberry and holly. In 

 winter the Cardinals are even more conspicuous in the dark evergreen foliage of the hollies 

 than in summer, as almost all the surrounding trees and shrubs have shed their leaves. 

 During the cold season the birds assemble in small flocks of five and more and roam 

 around in search of food. They are frequently seen in company of other Sparrows on 

 the borders of woods in cotton and corn-fields, where they are engaged in picking up 

 all kinds of weed and grass seeds. They are very fond of burr grass seeds or sand spurs 

 {Cencbrus ecbinatus), which are furnished with formidable spines. This grass is a very vile 

 weed of the southern fields and the orange groves of Florida. When alarmed the Cardinals, 

 like all the other bush-loving Sparrows, dart in a rather heedless way into the nearest 

 thickets. I have often amused myself in throwing my hat or a piece of wood in the 

 air, while observing the birds on the border of the woods. As soon as one of them ?aw 

 the strange object, an alarm note was uttered and almost all the birds rose at the same 

 time, and in a swarm, as quick as possible, tried to reach the covert. They are all 

 aware of the great danger they are exposed to in the open field, as the smaller Hawks 

 are always on the lookout for their prey in such places. As a rule these assemblages 

 of Sparrows do not venture to proceed too far from their protecting thickets. More in 

 the interior of the weedy fields we find the Grass Sparrows and Shore Larks, which find 

 their best hiding places among the dense weeds. 



