This species is also found in Canada, where it is called Recollet, probably, as Dr. Latham supposes, from the colour and appearance of its crest resembling the hood of an order of friars of that denomination; it has also been met with by several of our voyagers on the north-west coast of America, and appears to have an extensive range. Almost all the ornithologists of Europe persist in considering this bird as a variety of the European Chatterer (A. garrulus), with what justice or propriety, a mere comparison of the two will determine. The European species is very nearly twice the cubic bulk of ours; has the whole lower parts of an uniform dark vinous bay; the tips of the wings streaked with lateral bars of yellow; the nostrils covered with bristles;* the feathers on the chin loose and tufted; the wings black; and the markings of white and black on the sides of the head different from the American, which is as follows:-Length seven inches, extent eleven inches; head, neck, breast, upper part of the back, and wing-coverts, a dark fawn colour; darkest on the back, and brightest on the front; head ornamented with a high pointed almost upright crest; line from the nostril over the eye to the hind head velvety black, bordered above with a fine line of white, and another line of white passes from the lower mandible; chin black, gradually brightening into fawn colour, the feathers there lying extremely close; bill black, upper mandible nearly triangular at the base, without bristles, short, rounding at the point, where it is deeply notched; the lower scolloped at the tip and turning up; tongue, as in the rest of the genus, broad, thin, cartilaginous, and lacerated at the end; belly yellow; vent white; wings deep slate, except the two secondaries next the body, whose exterior vanes are of a fawn colour, and interior ones white; forming two whitish strips there, which are very conspicuous; rump and tail coverts pale light blue, tail the same, gradually deepening into black, and tipt for half an inch with rich yellow. Six or seven, and sometimes the whole nine, se * Turton. condary feathers of the wings, are ornamented at the tips with small red oblong appendages, resembling red sealing-wax; these appear to be a prolongation of the shafts, and to be intended for preserving the ends, and consequently the vanes, of the quills from being broken and worn away, by the almost continual fluttering of the bird among thick branches of the cedar. The feathers of those birds which are without these appendages are uniformly found ragged on the edges; but smooth and perfect in those on whom the marks are full and numerous. These singular marks have been usually considered as belonging to the male alone, from the circumstance, perhaps, of finding female birds without them. They are, however, common to both male and female. Six of the latter are now lying before me, each with large and numerous clusters of eggs, and having the waxen appendages in full perfection. The young birds do not receive them until the second fall, when, in moulting time, they may be seen fully formed, as the feather is developed from its sheath. I have once or twice found a solitary one on the extremity of one of the tail feathers. The eye is of a dark blood colour; the legs and claws black; the inside of the mouth orange; gap wide; and the gullet capable of such distention as often to contain twelve or fifteen cedar berries, and serving as a kind of craw to prepare them for digestion. No wonder then that this gluttonous bird, with such a mass of food almost continually in his throat, should want both the inclination and powers for vocal melody, which would seem to belong to those only of less gross and voracious habits. The chief difference in the plumage of the male and female consists in the dulness of the tints of the latter, the inferior appearance of the crest, and the narrowness of the yellow bar on the tip of the tail. Though I do not flatter myself with being able to remove that prejudice from the minds of foreigners, which has made them. look on this bird, also, as a degenerate and not a distinct species from their own; yet they must allow that the change has been very great, very uniform, and universal, all over North America, where I have never heard that the European species has been found; or even if it were, this would only show more clearly the specific difference of the two, by proving, that climate or food could never have produced these differences in either, when both retain them, though confined to the same climate. But it is not only in the colour of their plumage that these two birds differ, but in several important particulars, in their manners and habits. The breeding place of the European species is absolutely unknown; supposed to be somewhere about the polar regions; from whence, in winter, they make different and very irregular excursions to different parts of Europe; seldom advancing farther south than the north of England, in lat. 54° N. and so irregularly, that many years sometimes elapse between their departure and reappearance; which in more superstitious ages has been supposed to portend some great national calamity. On the other hand, the American species inhabits the whole extensive range between Mexico and Canada, and perhaps much farther both northerly and southerly, building and rearing their young in all the intermediate regions, often in our gardens and orchards, within a few yards of our houses. Those of our fellow-citizens who have still any doubts, and wish to examine for themselves, may see beautiful specimens of both birds in the superb collection of Mr. Charles W. Peale of this city, whose magnificent museum is indeed a national blessing, and will be a lasting honour to his memory. In some parts of the country they are called Crown-birds; in others Cherry-birds, from their fondness for that fruit. They also feed on ripe persimmons, small winter grapes, bird-cherries, and a great variety of other fruits and berries. The action of the stomach on these seeds and berries does not seem to injure their vegetative powers; but rather to promote them, by imbedding them in a calcareous case, and they are thus transported to and planted in various and distant parts by these little birds. In other respects, however, their usefulness to the farmer may be questioned; and in the general chorus of the featherd songsters they can scarcely be said to take a part. We must therefore rank them far below many more homely and minute warblers, their neighbours, whom Providence seems to have formed, both as allies to protect the property of the husbandman from devouring insects, and as musicians to cheer him, while engaged in the labours of the field, with their innocent and delightful melody. SPECIES 1. L. CARDINALIS CARDINAL GROSBEAK. [Plate XI.-Figs. 1 and 2.] LINN. Syst. 1, p. 300, No. 5.-Le Gros-bec de Virginie, BRISS. Orn. 111, p. 255, No. 17.—BUFF. 111, p. 458, pl. 28. Pl. Enl. 37.-LATH. Syn. 11, p. 118, No. 13.—Cardinal, BROWN'S Jam. p. 647.—PEALE's Museum, No. 5668.t 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. To this name, Dr. Latham observes, "they are fully entitled," from the clearness and variety of their notes, which, both in a wild and domestic state, are very various and musical; many of them resemble the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as loud. They are in song from March to September, beginning at the first appearance of dawn, and repeating a favourite stanza, or passage, twenty or thirty times successively; sometimes with little intermission for a whole morning together; which, like a good story too often repeated, becomes at length tiresome and insipid. But the sprightly figure, and gaudy plumage of the Red-bird, his vivacity, strength of voice, and actual This genus, as constituted by Brisson and at present adopted, does not include the four species described under it by Wilson. The three first have been refered to the genus Fringilla, and the fourth, according to Temminck belongs to the genus Pyrrhula of Brisson. We add the following synonymes:-Loxia cardinalis, GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 843. Cardinal Grosbeak, Arct. Zool. No. 210. CATESB. Car. 1, t. p. 38. VOL. II.-T |