. A System of natural history : containing scientifci [sic] and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . t in traps. When kept in a cage they have many of the habitsof the parrot, often climbing along the wires, and using their feet to graspthe cones in, while taking out the seeds. This bird has hitherto been considered a mere variety of the Europeanspecies, but it diflers in several respects. I have therefore separated it fromthe grosbeaks. It is subject to many changes of color. The male is fiveinches and three fourths long. The general color of the plum
. A System of natural history : containing scientifci [sic] and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects . t in traps. When kept in a cage they have many of the habitsof the parrot, often climbing along the wires, and using their feet to graspthe cones in, while taking out the seeds. This bird has hitherto been considered a mere variety of the Europeanspecies, but it diflers in several respects. I have therefore separated it fromthe grosbeaks. It is subject to many changes of color. The male is fiveinches and three fourths long. The general color of the plumage, whenperfect, is a red-lead color ; the tail is forked and edged with yellow. Thefemale is less than the male ; the plumage is of an olive yellow. Loxia curvirostra, Lin. The genus Loxia has the bill rather long, strong, much com-pressed, the two mandibles equally convex, and crossing each other at the points when atrest; nostrils round, basal, and lateral, concealed by reflected bristly feathers; the anteriortoes entirely divided; wings with the first quill feathers longest; tail forked. AVES—GROSBEAK. 533 THE CARDINAL The cardinal grosbeak is one of our most common cage birds, and is verygenerally known both in America and Europe. Numbers of these havebeen carried over to France and England, in which last country they arecalled Virginia nightingales. They have great clearness and variety oftones; many of them resemble the clear notes of a fife, and are nearly asloud. They begin in the spring at the first appearance of dawn, and repeata favorite stanza or passage, twenty or thirty times. His sprightly figureand gaudy plumage, his vivacity, strength of voice, and the little expensewith which he is kept, will always make him a favorite. This species inhabits America from New England to Carthagena. In thesouthern states they are the most numerous. They love to reside in thevicinity of fields of corn, a grain that constitutes their chief and favoritefood. The see
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