Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/145

 whippoorwill, which has become associated in more recent times with everything that superstitious terror can suggest. It is essentially a forest bird and must have been as common in aboriginal Virginia as it is in the Virginia of to-day; there appears, however, to be no distinct allusion in the narratives of the early writers to its characteristics or even to its existence. No such bird was to be found in England, a fact well calculated to impress its individuality the more strongly on the first adventurers. The jay of Virginia was somewhat smaller than the English bird but dissimilar in color; the body of the English jay was brown while that of the Virginian bird was blue, but the wings of both were marbled in the same curious manner, both were remarkable for the same discordant cry, and both in flight had the same abrupt and jetting motion. There was a species of bird that rarely arrived before the fall of the first snow, which became so much associated in the minds of the English settlers with this element that it received the name of the snow-bird, and as such it is known to this day. The plumage of its back and wings was light black in color while its breast was white; and, like the ordinary sparrow, it showed a strong disposition to frequent the vicinity of dwelling-houses.

Much more interesting was the cardinal or red bird, which was always described as the Virginian nightingale, on account of the clearness and strength rather than the variety of its notes. In a later age many of these birds were purchased for a few pence by the merchants and shipped to England, where they were kept in cages, not so much, it is to be suspected, for the charm of their voices as for the beauty of their plumage. There were two varieties of the lark, one of which resembled the common