Every passage below is reprinted word for word from John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography (1834), Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology (1832 edition), Edward Howe Forbush’s Birds of Massachusetts (1929), and Elon Howard Eaton’s Birds of New York (1914), cited in full at the end.

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Audubon’s portrait, 1834

Audubon: In richness of plumage, elegance of motion, and strength of song, this species surpasses all its kindred in the United States. It is known by the names of Red Bird, Virginia Nightingale, Cardinal Bird, and that at the head of the present article. It is very abundant in all our Southern States, as well as in the peninsula of the Floridas.

In the western country a great number are found as far up on the Ohio as the city of Cincinnati, and they extend to considerable distances into Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. They are found in the maritime districts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where they breed, and where a few remain the whole year; some are also seen in the State of New York, and now and then a straggler proceeds into Massachusetts; but farther eastward this species has never been observed.

This fine songster relishes the interior of the forest, and the heart of the deepest cane-brakes or retired swamps, as well as the neighbourhood of cities. It is constantly found in our fields, orchards and gardens; nay, it often enters the very streets of our southern towns and villages to breed; and it is rare that one goes into a planter’s yard without observing the Red Bird skipping about the trees or on the turf beneath them.

Go where it may, it is always welcome, and every where a favourite, so rich is its song, and so brilliant its plumage.

In richness of plumage, elegance of motion, and strength of song, this species surpasses all its kindred in the United States.

A song from before sunrise to dusk

Audubon on the song: Its song is at first loud and clear, resembling the finest sounds produced by the flageolet, and gradually descends into more marked and continued cadences, until it dies away in the air around. During the love-season the song is emitted with increased emphasis by this proud musician, who, as if aware of his powers, swells his throat, spreads his rosy tail, droops his wings, and leans alternately to the right and left, as if on the eve of expiring with delight at the delicious sounds of his own voice.

Again and again are those melodies repeated, the bird resting only at intervals to breathe. They may be heard from long before the sun gilds the eastern horizon, to the period when the blazing orb pours down its noonday floods of heat and light, driving the birds to the coverts to seek repose for a while.

Nature again invigorated, the musician recommences his song, when, as if he had never strained his throat before, he makes the whole neighbourhood resound, nor ceases until the shades of evening close around him. Day after day the song of the Red Bird beguiles the weariness of his mate as she assiduously warms her eggs; and at times she also assists with the modesty of her gentler sex.

Few individuals of our own race refuse their homage of admiration to the sweet songster. How pleasing is it, when, by a clouded sky, the woods are rendered so dark, that were it not for an occasional glimpse of clearer light falling between the trees, you might imagine night at hand, while you are yet far distant from your home—how pleasing to have your ear suddenly saluted by the well known notes of this favourite bird, assuring you of peace around, and of the full hour that still remains for you to pursue your walk in security!

How often have I enjoyed this pleasure, and how often, in due humbleness of hope, do I trust that I may enjoy it again!

Forbush, 1929 — and the female sings too: The Cardinal is one of the few birds of the United States that possesses brilliant plumage and unusual powers of song, and, curiously enough, the female sings a softer song, by no means inferior in its way to that of her mate. It is one of those rare singers that break into song in every month of the year.

In the past it was in great demand as a cage bird, but now the law has forbidden such confinement of native birds.

Nesting, from Florida to the Middle States

Audubon: The Cardinal Bird breeds in the Floridas. In the beginning of March I found them already paired in that country, and on the 8th of February near General HERNANDEZ’s. In the neighbourhood of Charleston, as well as in Louisiana, they are nearly a month later, and much the same lapse of time takes place again before they form a nest in the State of New Jersey or in that of Kentucky.

The nest is placed, apparently without much consideration, in some low briar, bush, or tree, often near the fence, the middle of a field, or the interior of a thicket, not far from a cooling stream, to which they are fond of resorting, for the purpose of drinking and bathing. Sometimes you find it placed close to the planter’s house or in his garden, a few yards from that of the Mocking Bird or the Thrasher.

It is composed of dry leaves and twigs, together with a large proportion of dry grass and slips of grape-vines, and is finished within with bent-grass, wrought in a circular form. The eggs are from four to six, of a dull white colour, marked all over with touches of olive-brown.

In the Southern Districts they now and then raise three broods in the season, but in the Middle States seldom more than one. The young on leaving the nest, frequently follow their parents on the ground for several days, after which they disperse and seek for food apart. During the pairing season, the males are so pugnacious, that although they breed near birds of other species, they never allow one of their own to nestle in their vicinity.

One male may be seen following another from bush to bush, emitting a shrill note of anger, and diving towards the fugitive antagonist whenever an opportunity offers, until the latter has escaped quite beyond his jurisdiction, when the conqueror, elated, returns to his grounds, ascends his favourite tree, and pours out his song in full exultation.

Forbush on the division of labor: The male is very attentive to his mate, following her while she is building the nest and singing his most melodious strains, and while she is performing the duties of incubation he brings her choice morsels of food whenever she calls for nourishment. Both parents assume the care of the young, which remain in the nest for nine or ten days.

When the young birds are out of the nest and able to fly about, the mother bird leaves them to the care of her mate, who guards and feeds them for three weeks or more, while the female is bringing up the second brood.

The redbird at home: Wilson, 1811

Wilson: 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 variety of note, and the little expense with which he is kept, will always make him a favourite.

This species, like the Mocking Bird, is more numerous to the east of the great range of the Alleghany Mountains, and inhabits from New England to Carthagena. Michaux the younger, son to the celebrated botanist, informed me, that he found this bird numerous in the Bermudas. In Pennsylvania and the Northern States, it is rather a scarce species; but through the whole lower parts of the Southern States, in the neighbourhood of settlements, I found them much more numerous; their clear and lively notes, in the months of January and February, being, at that time, almost the only music of the season.

Along the roadsides and fences I found them hovering in half dozens together, associated with Snow Birds, and various kinds of Sparrows. In the Northern States, they are migratory; but in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, they reside during the whole year, frequenting the borders of creeks and rivulets, in sheltered hollows, covered with holly, laurel, and other evergreens.

They love also to reside in the vicinity of fields of Indian corn, a grain that constitutes their chief and favourite food. The seeds of apples, cherries, and of many other sorts of fruit, are also eaten by them; and they are accused of destroying bees.

In the months of March and April, the males have many violent engagements for their favourite females. Early in May, in Pennsylvania, they begin to prepare their nest, which is very often fixed in a holly, cedar, or laurel bush. Outwardly, it is constructed of small twigs, tops of dry weeds, and slips of vine bark, and lined with stalks of fine grass.

The female lays four eggs, thickly marked all over with touches of brownish olive, on a dull white ground, as represented in the figure; and they usually raise two broods in the season. These birds are rarely raised from the nest for singing, being so easily taken in trap-cages, and soon domesticated. By long confinement, and perhaps unnatural food, they are found to fade in colour, becoming of a pale whitish red.

If well taken care of, however, they will live to a considerable age. There is at present in Mr Peale’s museum, the stuffed skin of one of these birds, which is there said to have lived in a cage upwards of twenty-one years.

And one legend he punctured: I must here remark, for the information of foreigners, that the story told by Le Page du Pratz, in his History of Louisiana, and which has been so often repeated by other writers, that the Cardinal Grosbeak “collects together great hoards of maize and buck-wheat, often as much as a bushel, which it artfully covers with leaves and small twigs, leaving only a small hole for entrance into the magazine,” is entirely fabulous.

On the female’s song: One peculiarity in the female of this species is, that she often sings nearly as well as the male. I do not know whether it be owing to some little jealousy on this score or not, that the male, when both occupy the same cage, very often destroys the female.

The measurements and the calendar

Forbush’s measurements: Measurements. — Length 7.50 to 9.25 in.; spread 10.25 to 12.00; folded wing 3.30 to 4.00; tail 3.50 to 4.75; bill .66 to .95; tarsus .75 to 1.00. Weight, male 2 oz. (B. H. Warren). Female smaller than male.

His breeding data: Breeding. — In thickets or among saplings or other small trees, either deciduous or coniferous. Nest: A loosely built structure of twigs, leaves, bark -strips, rootlets, weed stems and grasses, and lined with fine grass or hair; from 3 to 30 feet from ground, in tree, vine or bush, but usually quite low; sometimes on top of bush-covered fence or vine-covered stump, or in brush heap.

Eggs: 3 or 4; .98 to 1.10 by .69 to .82 in.; approaching oval; exceedingly variable, white, grayish-white, greenish-white or bluish-white, variously blotched, spotted and dotted with brownish-gray, reddish-brown, chocolate, yellow-ochre, purplish-brown or lilac; figured by E. A. Capen in “Oology of New England,” Plate X, Figs. 11, 12. Dates: April 5 to 25, Florida; April 30, Pennsylvania; May 5, New York; June 6, Massachusetts. Incubation: Period 12 days; by female. Two or three broods yearly.

The caged-redbird trade

Forbush: Cardinals were formerly in great demand as cage birds, and Nuttall tells us that Gemelli Careri (who wrote in 1699) said that the Spaniards of Havana in a time of public scarcity bought so many that the sum expended for them at ten dollars each reached $18,000.

As Cardinals were caged and sold in many countries, the trapping, handling and sale of these birds was in the aggregate an important business. The only harm done by the Cardinal seems to be its consumption of grain. Mr. Arthur T. Wayne writes that the bird is very destructive to rice and millet.

1914: a southern bird pushes north

Eaton: The Cardinal inhabits eastern United States from Iowa and southern New York to the gulf coast and is nonmigratory in habit. In this State it is commonest in the extreme southeastern counties west of the Hudson river, but not in Westchester county on the other side of the Hudson. It is a local resident also on Staten Island, and rare on the western end of Long Island, only one or two instances of its breeding there having come to my attention, one at Prospect Park, June 8, 1884 (see Adney, Auk, 11:390), and another instance reported from Bellport by W. A. Babson.

In Rockland county it is undoubtedly commoner than in any other portion of the State. Its occurrence in the coastal district has been reported not only from the localities mentioned, but from Riverdale, Coney Island, Flatbush, Flushing, Seaford, Roslyn and Brooklyn. In the interior of the State it has been recorded from Brockport, Keuka lake, Syracuse, Buffalo, Brant, Fredonia, Jamestown and Cohoes.

There is a bare possibility that some of these birds had escaped from cages, but in the majority of instances the condition of the specimens indicated that they had not been captive, at least for a long time, and there is no question that the species occasionally comes into the western part of New York State.

It is possible that it breeds in Chautauqua county, as Miss Sarah Waite reports that she has seen it near the shore of Lake Erie throughout the summer, under circumstances which made her certain it was breeding in the vicinity.

It is probable that the nonmigratory habit of this bird is largely responsible for its not becoming commoner in southern New York. What few specimens are raised in the State are likely to be killed during the shooting season in late fall or during the winter months, their conspicuous appearance and notes attracting the attention of everyone that passes by.

They learn, however, to be very secretive in habits, and if dense swamps and thickets of brush and small trees were common, there is little doubt that it would become much more plentiful on Staten Island, Long Island, and in the lower Hudson valley. The nature of the country in Rockland county is more favorable to it, and there it is well established.

If the residents of localities where the bird is beginning to appear could protect it thoroughly, there is no doubt that it would be able to remain throughout the winter and become more abundant, especially if fruit trees and plants which retain their seeds were planted in the thickets.

His notes on song and nest: The song of the Cardinal is “a loud clear whistle into which usually enters quite frequently the sound of Q! Q! Q!, and a peculiar long-drawn-out e-e! sometimes syllabled as ‘three cheers'” (Chapman). Its call note is an abrupt tsip. The nest is composed of twigs, rootlets, weed stalks and strips of bark, usually placed in thick bushes. The eggs are 3 or 4, pale bluish-white, speckled with brown and grayish; average size 1 by .7 inches.

New England, where the cardinal was still a stranger

Forbush: Cardinals are abundant in some of the extreme southern states, but are not common in the northernmost states, and though they reside throughout the year in southern New York and southern Ontario, they do not seem to be able to maintain themselves long in New England. There are many records of the species in this region, but the birds seem to be mere chance wanderers, staying with us for only a brief period, and then disappearing.

While here they are seen usually about cultivated lands, and they seem to like the vicinity of dwellings, and, as they are handsome and conspicuous birds, they are observed more readily than some of their plainer neighbors. The Cardinal is a resident throughout the year in the greater part of its range, and in winter when a thick carpet of snow lies on the ground, its plumage shines with unusual brilliance in the reflected light from the snow and stands out in marked contrast to the snowy background.

Source

John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, Vol. II (1834) — Internet Archive “ornithologicalbi02audu”. Alexander Wilson, American Ornithology (1832 edition) — Internet Archive “americanornithol11832wils”. Edward Howe Forbush, Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, Vol. III (1929) — Internet Archive “birdsofmassachu03forb”. Elon Howard Eaton, Birds of New York, Part 2, New York State Museum (1914) — Internet Archive “birdsofnewyork12eatorich”. Public domain. Internet Archive (BHL scans), four titles.

Passages reproduced verbatim from the scans listed; hard-wrapped lines rejoined (line-final hyphens closed up), the scans’ doubled word-spacing collapsed to single spaces, page headers, page numbers and footnote lines dropped. Accounts cut at paragraph boundaries; plumage-description, molt and range paragraphs omitted whole. The Forbush account uses the spec-corrected span (the account ends before the Rose-breasted Grosbeak heading), and the Eaton cardinal account likewise ends at its natural close before the Rose-breasted Grosbeak account begins. Two run-in section labels (“Haunts and Habits.”, “Economic Status.”) are dropped where a passage is entered mid-paragraph at a sentence boundary. Old names (Cardinal Grosbeak, redbird, Loxia cardinalis) are kept as printed. OCR fixes applied (original → corrected): “44 they are fully entitled,”” → ““they are fully entitled,””; “Cartliagena” → “Carthagena”; “I do not know whether l it be owing” → “I do not know whether it be owing”; “Thisj^s one of our most common cage birds” → “This is one of our most common cage birds”; “usually raise two brood in the season” → “usually raise two broods in the season”; “NuttaU” → “Nuttall”; “or bluishwhite, variously” → “or bluish-white, variously”; “reached $18,000.’” → “reached $18,000.”; “rice and millet.2” → “rice and millet.”; “wmite, grayish- white” → “white, grayish-white”; “wyeed stems” → “weed stems”; “yellowochre, purplish-brown” → “yellow-ochre, purplish-brown”; “(see Adney , Auk, 1 1390) ,” → “(see Adney, Auk, 11:390),”; “average size i by .7 inches” → “average size 1 by .7 inches”; “is ” a loud clear whistle” → “is “a loud clear whistle”; “sound of QI Q! Qf,” → “sound of Q! Q! Q!,”; “she assidously warms her eggs” → “she assiduously warms her eggs”; “‘The eggs are from four to six” → “The eggs are from four to six”. No other changes.