There are about five hundred and fifty different kinds of them.
"The birds that you have been studying thus far, from the Bluebird, Robin, and Wood Thrush to the Tanagers, belong to several different families and are chiefly insect-eaters, taking various fruits and berries in season, it is true, but making insects their regular diet.
Insects are not hard for any bird to eat, and so the bills of these birds do not have to be very stout or thick--some, indeed, are very thin and weak, like the Brown Creeper's.
"But the habits of the Finch family are quite different, and their beaks also.

They are true seed-eating birds, and their beaks are short, stout, and thick--cone-shaped it is called, like that of the White-throated Sparrow you learned about one day.

This enables them to crack the various seeds upon which they live at all times except in the nesting season, when few seeds are ripe.

During this time they eat a variety of insects, and feed them to the young birds; for young birds must grow so rapidly, in order to be strong enough for the autumn journey, that they require more nourishing food than seeds.
"The Finch family being able to live so well upon seed food do not have to make such long autumn journeys; for even in very cold places there are plenty of seeds to be had all through the winter." "Do you mean berries, please, uncle ?" said Dodo; "because if it was very cold wouldn't berries freeze as hard as pebbles ?" "They eat berries, but only as Weed Warriors,--for the seeds that are in the berries,--not for the juicy, fruity part, as the Seed Sowers do.
"The Robin, Thrush, and Catbird eat fruits and berries for the juicy, pulpy part.

They swallow this, and the seeds or pits pass out with the wastage of their bodies; this is what makes them Seed Sowers.