BIRDS OF AMERICA: THE CARDINAL

State Bird of Illinois, Indiana,Kentucky, North 

Carolina, Ohio,Virginia and West Virginia

By John James Audubon,

THE CARDINAL GROSBEAK

[Northern Cardinal.] 

PITYLUS CARDINALIS, Linn.
[Cardinalis cardinalis.] 

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.

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