134 Birds Every Child Should Know 



in the tropics, cardinals never migrate as the 

 rose-breasted grosbeak and so many of our 

 fair-weather feathered friends do. That is 

 because they can live upon the weed seeds and 

 the buds of trees and bushes in .winter as 

 comfortably as upon insects in summer. It 

 pays not to be too particular. 



In the Southern States every child knows the 

 common cardinal and could tell you that he is 

 a little smaller than a robin (not half so graceful), 

 that he is red all over, except a small black 

 area around his red bill, and that he wears his 

 head-feathers crested like the blue jay and the 

 titmouse. In a Bermuda garden, a shelf res- 

 taurant nailed up in a cedar tree attracted car- 

 dinals about it every hour of the day. If you 

 can think of a prettier sight than that dark 

 evergreen, with the brilliant red birds hopping 

 about in its branches and the sparkling sapphire 

 -sea dashing over gray coral rocks in the back- 

 ground, do ask some artist to paint it! 



Few lady birds sing — an accomplishment 

 usually given to their lover's only, to help woo 

 them. But the female cardinal is a charming 

 singer with a softer voice than her mate's — 

 most becoming to one of her sex — and an in- 

 dividual song quite different from his loud, 

 clear whistle. 



