et. This color is supposed to be named from the vestments of
a cardinal, an ecclesiastic of high rank in the Roman Church. The
female bird, while not so conspicuous as her mate, is clad in a rich
brown with just enough of red to light it up. They are indeed a
striking pair, and wherever they are found soon become favorites. They
are known as Cardinal Grosbeaks, Red-birds, Crested Red-birds, Virginia
Nightingales, and lately James Lane Allen has made familiar Kentucky
Cardinal. The illustration shows the Cardinal's most prominent
features--a very large strong bill, a conspicuous crest, which can be
erected or depressed at will, short rounded wings and a long tail. The
length of the Cardinal is a little over eight inches from tip of bill
to end of tail.

Once seen, the Cardinal can never be mistaken for any other bird,
especially as its plumage virtually never changes but remains much the
same at all seasons of the year. Cardinals are resident wherever they
are found, and their center of abundance is in the southern portion of
the United States. The northern limit of its range is approximately a
line drawn from a point in the vicinity of New York City, westward to
southeastern Nebraska; thence southward to Texas, where it is found in
the greater part of the state. These lines are arbitrary, but are given
in order that a teacher may show scholars in a general way where
Cardinals can be found. Further, they give teachers and pupils who
reside outside these limits an opportunity to extend the Cardinal's
known range by proving that it lives in their locality.

There have been records of the Cardinal made as far north as Nova
Scotia and Southern Ontario, but it is believed that these were escaped
cage birds, the Cardinal, probably owing to its beauty of plumage and
richness of song, having long been a favorite cage bird. Alexander
Wilson, in American Ornithology (Vol. II, page 145), which was
published in 1828, says, "This is one of our most common cage birds,
and is very generally known, not only in North America, but even in
Europe; numbers of them having been carried over both to France and
England, in which last country they are usually called Virginia
Nightingales."

Dr. Russ, the great German aviculturist, says, "Beloved in its home by
both Americans and Germans, it is protected and caught only for the
cage bird fancy. Had been bred in Holland a century and a half ago and
later in England." It is true that until recen