Note 13 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

Red-bird is another species of small bird. Catesby has likewise figured it13. Dr. Linnæus calls it, Loxia Cardinalis. It belongs to that class of birds which are enemies to bees, lying in wait for them and eating them. I fed a cock for five months together in a cage; it eat both maize and buck-wheat, for I gave it nothing else. By its song it attracted others of its species to the court-yard, and after we had put some maize on the ground under the window where I had it, the others came there every day to get their food; it was then easy to catch them by means of traps. Some of them, especially old ones, both cocks and hens, would die with grief on being put into cages. Those on the other hand which were grown tame, began to sing exceedingly sweet. Their note very nearly resembles that of our European nightingale, and on account of their agreeable song, they are sent abundantly to London, in cages. They have such strength in their bill that when you hold your hand to them they pinch it so hard as to cause the blood to issue forth. In spring they sit warbling on the tops of the highest trees in the woods, in the morning. But in cages they sit quite still for an hour; the next hour they hop up and down, singing; and so they go on alternately all day.