40 Bird Studies. 



and twigs, with a finer lining of grasses and rootlets, are placed in bushes and 

 thickets, often in low, damp places, and three or four bluish white eggs, 

 spotted with reddish brown and splashed with grayish lavender, are laid. 

 These eggs are about one inch longand a little less than three quarters of an 

 inch in their median diameter. 



The geographical race, found throughout Florida, is known as the Florida 

 Cardinal. The birds are smaller and generally darker colored than the Carr 



T?i -J /- J- 1 dinal of the North, and the female shows a stronger tone of 

 Florida Cardinal. . . , i i m t i • 11 1 



cardinaiiscardinaiisflori- ^ed m the crest and on the tail. In this sex the breast and 

 danus Ridgw. chest are often strongly tinged with red, or there is an in- 



termixture of decidedly red feathers. 



As the photographs and portraits of those we know best and are most 



familiar with are generally disappointing, because of our very knowledge and 



association, so any description of this bird seems inade- 



Shall I say that the Song Sparrow is a brown bird, 

 streaked with darker shades of brown above ; that beneath it is white, the sides 

 and breast streaked with brown, and the white throat clearly defined by a brown 

 stripe on either side? That there is a. more or less defined brown spot on 

 the striped breast ? That he is about six and a half inches long ? Do you 

 recognize this pen picture of an old friend ? If not, does the portrait opposite 

 recall the minstrel whose happy song begins when the ground is white with 

 snow, and closes with the last of the falling leaves ? 



With us Song Sparrows are resident and present throughout the year. 

 They breed from Virginia and Illinois north to the Fur Countries, and win- 

 ter from Massachusetts to the Gulf States. 



The nest is a rather loose and bulky structure composed of leaves, coarse 

 grass, and strips of bark, lined with similar material of a finer character. Itis 

 generally placed on the ground, but now and then in low bushes. The eggs 

 are three to five in number, bluish white in color, splashed heavily with brown, 

 so as to almost hide the ground color. They are nearly four fifths of an inch 

 long and almost three fifths of an inch broad. 



