CARDINAL GROSBEAK. jg! 



wet weather. They are generally known by the names, red 

 bird, Virginia red bird, Virginia nightingale, and crested red 

 bird, to distinguish them from another beautiful species, which 

 is represented on the same plate. 



I do not know that any successful attempts have been made 

 to induce these birds to pair and breed in confinement ; but 

 I have no doubt of its practicability, by proper management. 

 Some months ago, I placed a young unfledged cow bird (the 

 Fringilla pecoris of Turton), whose mother, like the cuckoo 

 of Europe, abandons her eggs and progeny to the mercy and 

 management of other smaller birds, in the same cage with 

 a red bird, which fed and reared it with great tenderness. 

 They both continue to inhabit the same cage, and I have 

 hopes that the red bird will finish his pupil's education by 

 teaching him his song. 



I must here remark, for the information of foreigners, 

 that the story told by Le Page du Pratz, in his " History of 

 Louisiana," and which has been so often repeated by other 

 writers, that the cardinal grosbeak "collects together great 

 hoards of maize and buckwheat, often as much as a bushel, 

 which it artfully covers with leaves and small twigs, leaving 

 only a small hole for entrance into the magazine," is entirely 

 fabulous. 



This species is eight inches long, and eleven in extent ; the 

 whole upper parts are a dull, dusky red, except the sides of the 

 neck and head, which, as well as the whole lower parts, are 

 bright vermilion ; chin, front, and lores, black ; the head is 

 ornamented with a high, pointed crest, which it frequently 

 erects in an almost perpendicular position, and can also flatten 

 at pleasure, so as to be scarcely perceptible ; the tail extends 

 three inches beyond the wings, and is nearly even at the end ; 

 the bill is of a brilliant coralline colour, very thick and power- 

 ful, for breaking hard grain and seeds ; the legs and feet, a 

 light clay colour (not blood red, as Buffon describes them) ; 

 iris of the eye, dark hazel. The female is less than the male, 

 has the upper parts of a brownish olive, or drab colour, the 



