Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings washed
with gray.
Female -- Brownish yellow above, shading to gray below. Tail
shorter than the male's. Crest, wings, and tail reddish. Breast
sometimes tinged with red.
Range -- Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becoming more
and more common during the summer in States north of Virginia,
especially in Ohio, south of which it is resident throughout
the year.
Migrations -- Resident rather than migrating birds, remaining
throughout the winter in localities where they have found their
way. Travel in flocks.
Among the numerous names by which this beautiful bird is known, it has become
immortalized under the title of Mr. James Lane Allen's exquisite book, "The
Kentucky Cardinal." Here, while we are given a most charmingly sympathetic,
delicate account of the bird "who has only to be seen or heard, and Death
adjusts an arrow," it is the cardinal's pathetic fate that impresses one most.
Seen through less poetical eyes, however, the bird appears to be a haughty
autocrat, a sort of "F. F. V." among the feathered tribes, as, indeed, his
title, "Virginia redbird," has been unkindly said to imply. Bearing himself
with a refined and courtly dignity, not stooping to soil his feet by walking
on the ground like the more democratic robin, or even condescending below the
level of the laurel bushes, the cardinal is literally a shining example of
self-conscious superiority -- a bird to call forth respect and admiration
rather than affection.
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