Eaters.

Having been reminded of Dotty the Tree Sparrow, Peter Rabbit became
possessed of a great desire to find this little friend of the cold
months and learn how he had fared through the summer.

He was at a loss just where to look for Dotty until he remembered a
certain weedy field along the edge of which the bushes had been left
growing. "Perhaps I'll find him there," thought Peter, for he remembered
that Dotty lives almost wholly on seeds, chiefly weed seeds, and that he
dearly loves a weedy field with bushes not far distant in which he can
hide.

So Peter hurried over to the weedy field and there, sure enough, he
found Dotty with a lot of his friends. They were very busy getting their
breakfast. Some were clinging to the weed-stalks picking the seeds out
of the tops, while others were picking up the seeds from the ground. It
was cold. Rough Brother North Wind was doing his best to blow up another
snow-cloud. It wasn't at all the kind of day in which one would expect
to find anybody in high spirits. But Dotty was. He was even singing
as Peter came up, and all about Dotty's friends and relatives were
twittering as happily and merrily as if it were the beginning of spring
instead of winter.

Dotty was very nearly the size of Little Friend the Song Sparrow and
looked somewhat like him, save that his breast was clear ashy-gray, all
but a little dark spot in the middle, the little dot from which he gets
his name. He wore a chestnut cap, almost exactly like that of Chippy
the Chipping Sparrow. It reminded Peter that Dotty is often called the
Winter Chippy.

"Welcome back, Dotty!" cried Peter. "It does my heart good to see you."

"Thank you, Peter," twittered Dotty happily. "In a way it is good to be
back. Certainly, it is good to know that an old friend is glad to see
me."

"Are you going to stay all winter, Dotty?" asked Peter.

"I hope so," replied Dotty. "I certainly shall if the snow does not get
so deep that I cannot get enough to eat. Some of these weeds are so tall
that it will take a lot of snow to cover them, and as long as the tops
are above the snow I will have nothing to worry about. You know a lot of
seeds remain in these tops all winter. But if the snow gets deep enough
to cover these I shall have to move along farther south."

"Then I hope there won't be much snow," declared Peter very
emphatically. "There are few enough folks about in winter at best,
goodness knows, and I don't know of any one