FINCHES, SPARROWS, BUNTINGS: CARDINAL 671 
Bill very large and stout but conic, wings very short and rounded, tail rounded. 
Adult male: Head , neck , and underparts light vermilion-red; the high crest deeper 
red but, except in worn plumage, with olive-gray tips; upper parts dull red (feathers 
partly tipped with olive-gray); lores and chin black; bill red. “The breeding dress 
is acquired by wear only [not molt], the male becoming brighter and redder than in 
winter through loss of the grayish tips” (Chapman). Adult female: Crest partly 
and wings and tail mainly dull red as in male, but tail feathers edged with olive; 
red of head and body replaced on upperparts by brownish gray or grayish hair- 
brown and on underparts by uniform tawny or clay-color; lores and chin deep 
grayish; under wing coverts bright rose; bill as in male. Young injuvenal plumage: 
Like female but lighter below and without grayish face and throat, bill blackish. 
Young male, with crest tinged with dull red and underparts with pink; young 
female with only wings and tail reddish. 
Comparisons. —The adult male cardinals occurring in New Mexico may be 
distinguished by the amount of black around the base of the bill. In the Gray¬ 
tailed, the bill is entirely encircled by black, a narrow black frontlet connecting 
the lores; in the Arizona, the black circlet is broken, there being no black over 
the top of the bill between the lores. 
Range. —Southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and contiguous 
parts of Sonora. 
State Records. —The Arizona Cardinal, which is common in southeastern 
Arizona, ponies into New Mexico along the Gila, and was reported by Henry at 
Fort Thom, where he was from 1854 to 1858. [It was taken by Kellogg, December 
14, 1917, 20 miles west of Silver City, where “the Gila River comes out of a tight 
box just northeast of Redrock,” this box apparently limiting their distribution up 
the river. At Redrock, where it is a common breeder, on May 8, 1922, at least a 
dozen were seen and a pair taken by Kellogg, who also took another there on May 
13, 1924.] 
Nest. —In a bush, a vine, or a low thick tree; made loosely of twigs, leaves, 
grasses, and strips of bark. Eggs: 2 to 4, white, irregularly spotted with brown, 
from reddish to dark chocolate, with neutral shell tints. 
General Habits. —The Cardinals of whatever subspecies seem 
well known from their relationship to the familiar cage bird, noted both 
for brilliant color and rich voice. 
[GRAY-TAILED CARDINAL: Richmondena cardinalis canicaudus (Chapman) 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 7.6-8.6 inches, wing 3.5-3.8, tail 3.8-4.4, 
bill .7-.8. Female: Length (skins) 7-8.2 inches, wing 3.2-3.7, tail 3.6-4.1, bill 
.7-.8. Similar to the Arizona Cardinal but with narrow black frontlet, the female 
with grayer back, and tail feathers broadly margined with gray instead of olive. 
Range. —Lower Sonoran Zone from central and southwestern Texas (perhaps 
to southeastern New Mexico) south to Puebla and Michoacan. 
State Records. —To the southeastward the Gray-tailed Cardinal comes up 
the Pecos within less than 50 miles of New Mexico, and with the increased growth 
of trees under irrigation may gradually extend its range into the State. A specimen 
that can not now be located was taken near Carlsbad, June 20, 1899, by Capt. 
A. H. Higginson, and from its nearness to the Texas localities of canicaudus , may 
have been that subspecies.] 
