54 THE BIRD GROWN UP 
The goldfinch is called the thistle-bird, be- 
cause he likes best the seeds of thistles, though 
he eats the beggar’s tick too. 
The chipping sparrow, the little red-headed 
bird who comes about our doors, eats the seeds 
of fox-tail and crab grasses, that spoil our lawns. 
The white-throated sparrow, a large and very 
pretty bird, eats the seeds of smartweed and 
ragweed. Other finches like bittersweet, sorrel, 
and amaranth, all of which we are glad to have 
them eat. 
The seed-eating birds can find their food in 
winter, even when snow covers the ground, be- 
cause the dead weeds hold on to their seeds, and 
the snow is not often deep enough to cover 
them. 
Some birds gather their food in the fall, and 
hide it away where they can find it in winter. 
Blue jays collect acorns and beech-nuts, and 
store them in a hole in a tree, or some other 
safe place, to eat when food is scarce. A wood- 
pecker who lives in the West picks holes in the 
bark of a tree, and puts an acorn into each one. 
The oddest store I know of was made by a 
woodpecker. He found a long crack in a post, 
and stuffed it full of live grasshoppers. He did 
not like dead grasshoppers. He wedged them 
into the crack so tightly that they could not get 

