38 



CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 

 LOXIA CABDIjYALIS. 

 [Plate XI*— Figs. 1 and 2.] 



Linn. Si/st. I, p. 300 j JVo. 5. — Le Gros-bec de Firgmie, Briss. Orn. Ill, p. 255, JVo. 17. 

 —Buff. Ill, p. 458, pi. 28. FL enl 37.— Lath. *S'z/7z. II, p. 118, .Yo. U.— Cardinal, 

 Brown's Jam. p. 647. — Peale's Museum, No. 5668. 



THIS is one of our most common cage birds ; and is very ge- 

 nerally known^ not only in North America, but even in Europe; 

 numbers of them having been carried over both to France and 

 England, in which last country they are usually called Virginia 

 Nightingales. To this name, Dr. Latham observes, " they are fully 

 entitled," from the clearness and variety of their notes, which, both 

 in a wild and domestic state, are very various and musical; many 

 of them resemble the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as loud. 

 They are in song from March to September, beginning at the first 

 appearance of dawn, and repeating a favorite stanza, or passage, 

 twenty or thirty times successively; sometimes with little inter- 

 mission for a whole morning together; which, like a good story 

 too often repeated, becomes at length tiresome and insipid. But 

 the sprightly figure, and gaudy plumage of the Red-bird, his viva- 

 city, strength of voice, and actual variety of note, and the little 

 expense with which he is kept, will always make him a favorite. 



This species, like the Mocking-bird, is more numerous to the 

 east of the great range of the Alleghany mountains ; and inhabits 

 from New England to Carthagena. Michaux the younger, son to 

 the celebrated botanist, informed me, that he found this bird nu- 

 merous in the Bermudas. In Pennsylvania and the northern states 

 it is rather a scarce species ; but thro the whole lower parts of the 

 southern states, in the neighbourhood of settlements, I found them 



