FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Two distinct groups of finches or sparrows are commonly known 

 as grosbeaks. One of these, which includes the pine and evening 

 grosbeaks, is of little practical importance, since its members breed 

 and pass most of their lives in mountainous regions, or in the northern 

 parts of North America. The other group includes the cardinal, 

 gray, rose-breasted, black-headed, and blue grosbeaks, which spend 

 either the summer or the entire year within agricultural regions of 

 the United States. Hence their food habits are of considerable im- 

 portance to the farmer. 



The members of the first-named group may be dismissed with the 

 statement that during the period when they occur in non-mountainous 

 districts their food consists largely of wild seeds and berries. Appar- 

 ently the best relished are those of mountain ash, choke cherry, box 

 elder, white ash, and maple, and of spruce, red cedar, and other con- 

 iferous trees. The food habits of the second group are treated in 

 detail in the following pages. 



CARDINAL. 

 (Cardinalis cardinalis. Plate I, Frontispiece.) 

 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS. 



The brilliant and easily recognized cardinal ranges over much of 

 North America. It occurs from southernmost Mexico and northern 

 Central America north to New York, Ontario, and northern Iowa, 

 and west to central Kansas, Arizona, and Lower California. In 

 parts of this area the size and color have been so modified by climatic 

 and other causes that 12 varieties or subspecies are distinguishable. 

 Five of these reside in the United States, and while they bear no dis- 

 tinctive vernacular names, the species as a whole is well supplied, 

 being variously known as cardinal grosbeak or cardinal, Virginia 

 nightingale, redbird, and also as the crested or topknot redbird, 

 in distinction from the summer redbird or tanager. 



The cardinal is resident wherever found ; that is, the neighborhood 

 where the bird rears its young is its home throughout the year. It is 

 most abundant perhaps in the Southern States, where almost univer- 



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