CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 
191 
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 practicablity, 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 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 
