48 OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
flower patches. We have thrown hard crumbs out to 
them in the yard, and they have been seen to crack 
these crumbs all to pieces, thinking of course that there 
must be a shell. 
The birds do not crack or break their teeth or beaks, 
be the seeds ever so hard, as a child would be very 
likely to do on a walnut. Every bird carries a nut- 
cracker about with him wherever he goes. If a finch 
gets hold of a very tough, hard seed, he slips it far 
back in the beak, where the angle of the jaw gives 
better strength or force. He can then break it easily, 
as you would crack the hardest nut by placing it close 
to the hinge of the nutcracker. 
If the seed is tender or brittle, the bird pushes it to 
the point of his beak with his tongue and presses on it. 
Out drops the seed-cover to the ground, leaving the 
meat in the bird’s bill. 
Our tame canary has an original way of preparing 
his food. We give him cookie or bread, and he breaks 
off bits and carries them to his water dish, into which 
he drops them. After they have soaked a little while, 
he goes back and picks them out and eats them. Now 
his teeth are not at all poor, for he cracks his canary 
seeds without any trouble. We think he likes a little 
mush for a change, and so he makes it for himself. 
One sometimes wonders why our garden birds do not 
store away food when it is plentiful, as squirrels do. 
There are ever so many nice hiding-places all about. 
Some wild birds do hide their food, thus “laying up 
