IDYLLS OF BIRD LIFE 
His chin and a band around his bill are black. His beak is 
stout and red, and his wings are grayish colored during the 
Winter. 
What is more beautiful, on a Winter landscape, when the 
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earth is cldthed in a thick mantle of snow, and the evergreens 
droop heavily under their burden of fleecy whiteness, than the 
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i"ed flashes of a little group of cardinals in some cedar tree, con¬ 
trasting strongly against the richness of their surroundings? 
When the Winter is very severe and food is scarce, this haughty 
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little aristocrat of birddom will often deign to mingle with the 
chickadees and nuthatches, sharing the food that was placed for 
them by teome bird lover. 
The cardinal is seldom seen permanently located in one 
place during the Winter. He usually 
his own species, continuing on through places where he can 
make his way. Endowed by Nature with a wonderful voice, 
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the cardinal is sometimes called the “Virginia nightingale,” but 
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his rich “choo,” is seldom heard during the short Winter days/ ^ 
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The blue jay is another of our well-known birds which ~:-r: 
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roams about in flocks of 
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shares the Winter months with us. He is somewhat larger than 
the robin. With blue above, a black band around the neck, 
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lie is a grayish-white underneath. The wing coverts and tail 
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