SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PASSEBES— OSCINES. 
early age, bill dark. Eastern U. S., southerly, seldom N. to the Connecticut Valley ; along the 
Mexican border shading into C. v. igneus. A bird of striking appearance and brilliant vocal 
powers, resident and abundant from the Middle States southward ; inhabits thickets, tangle and 
undergrowth of all kinds, w^hence issue its rich rolling whistling notes while the performer, 
brightly clad as he is, often eludes observation by his shyness, vigilance, and activity. The 
nest, built loosely of bark-strips, twigs, leaves, and grasses, is placed in a bush, vine, or low 
Fig. 255. — Cardinal Grosbeak, upper ; Kose-breasted Grosbeak, lower ; reduced. (From Brehm.) 
thick tree ; the eggs are 1.00-1.10 long, 0.70-0.80 in breadth, profusely marked with browns, 
from reddish to dark chocolate, with neutral tint in the shell, usually in line dotting or mar- 
bling pattern. Two or three broods are reared in the South. Like the rose-breasted grosbeak, 
the cardinal is a favorite cage-bird. 
300. C. V. ig'neus. (Lat. igneus, fiery.) Fiery-red Cardinal. Like the last; not redder, but if 
anything lighter red ; black mask narrowed on forehead, or so interrupted there that the red 
reaches to the biU; crest inclining to light red, more like that of belly than of back. Bill 
