CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 
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twigs, tops of' dry weeds, and slips of vine bark, and 
lined with stalks of fine grass. The female lays four 
eggs, thickly marked all over with touches of brownish 
olive, on a dull white ground ; and they usually raise 
two brood in the season. These birds are rarely raised 
from the nest for singing, being so easily taken in trap 
cages, and soon domesticated. By long confinement, 
and perhaps unnatural food, they are found to fade in 
colour, becoming of a pale whitish red. If well taken 
care of, however, they will live to a considerable age. 
There is at present in Mr Peale’s museum, the stuffed 
skin of one of these birds, which is there said to have 
lived in a cage upwards of twenty-one years. 
The opinion which so generally prevails in England, 
that the music of the groves and woods of America is 
far inferior to that of Europe, I, who have a thousand 
times listened to both, cannot admit to be correct. We 
cannot with fairness draw a comparison between the 
depth of the forest in America, and the cultivated fields 
of England ; because it is a well known fact, that 
singing birds seldom frequent the former in any country. 
But let the latter places be compared with the like 
situations in the United States, and the superiority of 
song, I am fully persuaded, would justly belong to the 
western continent. The few of our song birds that 
have visited Europe extort admiration from the best 
judges. “ The notes of the cardinal grosbeak,” says 
Latham, “ are almost equal to those of the nightingale.” 
Yet these notes, clear and excellent as they are, are 
far inferior to those of the wood thrush ; and even to 
those of the brown thrush, or thrasher. Our inimitable 
mocking bird is also acknowledged, by themselves, to 
be fully equal to the song of the nightingale <c in its 
whole compass.” Yet these are not one-tenth of the 
number of our singing birds. Could these people be 
transported to the borders of our woods and settlements, 
in the 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 
