Early settlers simply called the northern cardinal, which is unique to North America, “the Red Bird.” It was frequently captured and put in cages, where both males and females would sing “exceedingly sweet,” unless “they would die with grief,” wrote eighteenth-century naturalist Peter Kalm. Our common northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, was initially Loxia cardinalis. Loxos, Greek for “crossroads” (so “crosswise” or “crooked”), was for its curved conical beak which the cardinal uses to crush grains and seeds, rather than peeling them, as weaker-billed birds must.
The name “cardinal” comes from the officials of the Catholic church, who traditionally wore bright red, a sign of affluence and power. Before synthetic dyes, red was an expensive color to obtain because it was derived from the rare cochineal insect. Subsequently, only the elite could afford red garments. These powerful ecclesiastics got their name from the Latin cardo, or “hinge.” The balance of significant ideas often “hinged” on the judgment of powerful church officials, and indeed sins or virtues could become “cardinal” too.
The cardinal family grouping has been changed several times, and it still isn’t always consistent. Cardinals are now generally grouped with grosbeaks (from the French gros, “large,” and bee, “beak”) and buntings. The family name is Cardinalidae. Older books may call the cardinal Ricbmondena caidinalis, after Charles Wallace Richmond, who spent most of his life working in Washington. He had become interested in birds when, at the age of thirteen, he was a page in the House of Representatives and was allowed access to books in the Library of Congress.
While studying for a degree in medicine, he took a job as a night watchman at the United States National Museum, and gradually advanced until he became assistant curator, residual there until he died in 1932. Although he made a card index of all the known birds and was greatly appreciated by his generations, he is not much recognized these days. His former namesake, though, was the first bird in the United States to be given official state recognition when in 1926it was designated as the state bird of Kentucky. Now it’s the bird of seven states. This peak of the avian hierarchy is (nomenclatorial speaking) an unclear separation of church and state but, yet, unchallenged.
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