198 
ORDERS OF BIRDS— PERCHERS AND SINGERS 
interlopers are killed off, the better for all other 
birds. They can be made to serve well as sub- 
jects for dissection in the school-room, and for 
amateur taxidermists; and they make excellent 
food for captive hawks, owls, small carnivores, 
and live snakes of several species. 
The introduction of this bird may well serve 
as a solemn warning against any further med- 
dlings with Nature on that line. In the first 
place, there never existed the slightest reason 
CARDINAL. 
or need for this importation. Without serious 
consideration, or consultation with the persons 
most competent to advise, this bird was im- 
ported and planted in twelve widely separated 
localities in the United States. To-day it is a 
feathered nuisance that spreads over one-half 
the United States, and excepting locally cannot 
be abated. Nevertheless, it is within the power 
of western towns and cities wherein it has not yet 
gained a foothold to follow the example of Mr. 
Bond in Cheyenne, and destroy every colony 
that enters before it has time to breed. 
The Cardinal, or Cardinal Grosbeak , 1 also 
called the Cardinal Redbird, is the pride of 
the South. From New Orleans to New York 
it is persistently trapped and “limed,” — not to 
“ keep ” as a cage-bird, but to sell as such. Poor, 
unhappy Cardinal! How much better its fate 
1 Car-di-naV is car-di-nal'is. Length, 8.50 inches. 
had it been created black instead of bright cardb 
nal red, with no jaunty top-knot, and no fatal 
gift of song! 
In a cage 6 by 9 feet, or even 4 by 4, a bird like 
this flies to and fro, and in company with a dozen 
other small birds finds life far from dull. But if 
you put a wild song-bird in a cage barely large 
enough for a canary, the bird is wretched, it dies 
soon, and the keeping of it is a sin against Nat- 
ure. Excepting canaries and a very few other 
species, if you cannot keep birds (and mam- 
mals, also) in big cages, do not keep them . at all! 
The way thousands of song-birds are caught in 
some portions of the South, to sell as cage-birds, 
is a sin and a shame. At this date, New Orleans 
in particular has before her an imperative duty in 
breaking up this business. Children everywhere 
should be taught that it is almost impossible 
for any one save an expert bird-man to take 
young song-birds, and rear them successfully. 
Young insectivorous birds require specially 
compounded bird-food, and it must be given to 
them every hour, with small forceps — a very tedi- 
ous operation. 
In the kindness of their little hearts, children 
often take young song-birds from the nest, cage 
them, and try to feed them on what some little 
folks like best — cake and cream! They might 
as well give them poison! For any one ignorant 
of the precise methods necessary in rearing in- 
sectivorous birds, to take such birds from their 
parents is cruelty and destruction! 
The sight of a wild Cardinal always compels 
attention. The bird is not only beautiful in color, 
but it is aristocratic in form and manner. It 
comes up from the South into New York state, 
and the Ohio River region, and extends westward 
to the edge of the plains region. 
The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 2 is, in all re- 
spects save one, a very beautiful bird. It has a 
big, clumsy-looking, conspicuously white beak, 
which almost spoils the whole bird. But the 
pink-sunset flush on the clear sky of its breast, 
its glossy-black head and tail, and black-and- 
white wings, are so beautiful a combination they 
lead one to forgive the homely beak. The deli- 
cate pink-rose tint on the breast renders the iden- 
tification of this bird very easy, even at first 
sight. 
I must confess that I remember nothing of 
2 Zam-e-lo' di-a lu-do-vi-d-an'a. Length, 8 inches. 
