Canter Bridge

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The University of Texas Press has the habit of publishing loving reflections upon different bird species, penned with a rhetorical flourish by their admirers. These are not merely descriptive ornithological treatises. They are virtually love letters to our feathered visitors.

June Osborne’s The Cardinal is no exception (photographs by Barbara Garland). The author clearly welcomes the cardinal to her backyard and window ledge and is connected to a network of similar admirers of the redbird, many of whom are drawn upon for anecdotes about this bird’s behavior.

The distinctive of the book is that Osborne follows the cardinal through the seasons of the year, making the book a handy elbow-side reference that can be picked up and consulted in, say, July, to see what the Cardinal is meant to be doing just about now and whether ‘mine’ are holding to shedule.

If the fifth star evades The Cardinal in this review, that is merely because much of the detail is anecdotal rather than scientific. A subtitle might have corrected any mistaken impressions and earned the fifth star. But if you want the book, I’ve described, don’t hesitate to pick up this little volume, which adds yet another feather to the cap of the UT Press.