Other Birds of the Sparrow Family 333 



Finley & Bohlman 

 FIG. 208. Texas cardinal on her nest. 



cotton plant. Formerly many were kept in cages. One 

 died after being in captivity thirty years. How long 

 it had lived before being caged was not known. 



Where they are well treated, cardinals become familiar 

 enough without being confined. In winter they will 

 come every day and eat seeds from a shelf just outside 

 a window. They may nest in a bush, a grapevine tangle, 

 porch trellis, or even inside a conservatory. 



The towhee. The towhee, chewink, or ground robin 

 belongs to the sparrow family but looks more like a robin. 

 It is smaller than a robin, but larger than our largest 

 sparrows. The male has the breast and most of the upper 

 parts black, the belly white, the sides colored like a robin's 

 breast. The female has a grayish brown color in place 

 of the black of the male. Both show considerable white 

 on the tail when they fly. They are common throughout 

 much of the United States at all seasons, a few remaining 

 as far north as Lake Erie in winter. They live in woods 

 where there is an undergrowth of shrubbery, feeding on 



