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. 
