CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 
53 
month of May, about half an hour before sunrise, such a ravishing 
concert would greet their ear as they have no conception of. 
The males of the Cardinal Grosbeak, when confined together in a 
cage, fight violently. On placing a looking-glass before the cage, the 
gesticulations of the tenant are truly laughable ; yet with this he soon 
becomes so well acquainted, that, in a short time, he takes no notice 
whatever of it ; a pretty good proof that he has discovered the true 
cause of the appearance to proceed from himself. They are hardy 
birds, easily kept, sing six or eight months in the year, and are most 
lively in 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 color, very thick and powerful 
for breaking hard grain and seeds ; the legs and feet a light clay color 
(not blood red as Bufifon 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 color, the tail, wings and tip of the crest excepted, which 
are nearly as red as those of the male ; the lores, front and chin, are 
light ash ; breast and lower parts a reddish drab ; bill, legs and eyes, 
as those of the male ; the crest is shorter and less frequently raised. 
One j)eculiarity in the female of this species is, that she often sings 
