148 
CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 
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 
‘‘ buck-wheat, often as much as a bushel, which it artfully co- 
“ vers 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 Vermillion; chin, front and lores, black; the head is or- 
namented with a high, pointed crest, which it frequently erects 
in an almost perpendicular position; and can also flatten at plea- 
sure, so as to be scarcely perceptible; tlie 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 powerful 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 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 peculiarity in the female of this species is, that she often 
sings nearly as well as the male. I do not know whether it be 
