Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/250

by cold, leaves before hard frosts. A pair or two always nest in the garden under a tangle of wild grape-vines.

Cardinal: Cardinalis cardinalis.

Cardinal Grosbeak, Virginia Nightingale.

Plate 39.

Length: 8-9 inches.

Male: Magnificent red, conspicuously crested; black throat and band around beak. Wings at some seasons washed with gray. Bill light red; feet brown.

Female: Brownish yellow; crest, wings, and tail reddish.

Song: A full, rich whistle, - "Cheo-cheo-chehoo-cheo!" Female also sings.

Season: Anotable bird of the Southern States, straggling as far north as Massachusetts.

Breeds: Through its range.

Nest: Bulky and loosely made of bark, leaves, and grass placed in a Eggs: Pale gray, marked with brown, varying from red to chocolate.

Range: EastertUnited States, north to New Jersey and the Ohio Valley (casually farther), west to the Plains.

As a cage bird the Cardinal is familiar to nearly every one; although in confinement he soon loses the brilliancy of his plumage, he often keeps his full song. He is regarded as a semi-tropical species, yet in the breeding-season he strays into the New England States; winters plentifully in lower Pennsylvania, while a small colony are resident in Central Park, New York.

The Cardinal owes many of his misfortunes to his "fatal gift of beauty." It is simply impossible that he should escape notice, and to be seen, in spite of laws to the con-trary, means that he will either be trapped, shot, or perse-euted out of the country. The fact that this bird has not become extinet is a wonderful proof of the endurance and persistency of the species.

In the vicinity of New York, Mr. Bicknell says that its song lasts from April to August, and that he has seen the Cardinal in every month from October to March. Wilson writes that the full song lasts, in the South, from March to

161