322 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
securely nailed, as all the bark covering must be, to pre- 
vent splitting, the logs will be attractive both as drinking- 
troughs for the birds and as features of the gardens where 
they are placed, and I am sure that we shall have no diffi- 
culty in selling them. Many people would establish drink- 
ing-places for the birds if they had something suitable to 
hold the water, but tin pans glisten, heat quickly, and 
even earthenware dishes are slippery, while the hollow 
log, that soon mosses over, must seem to the wild bird 
like a natural bit of the woods. Only one thing must be 
remembered: the log must not be allowed to become dry 
at any season, or it will warp and split. 
“Tt would be worth the trouble of keeping such a foun- 
tain filled, I am sure, if only to lure a single pair of Song 
Sparrows about the garden or yard. For this Sparrow 
is the only bird whose song I have heard in every month 
of the year. Not the full spring song, of course, though I 
have heard a very perfect melody in December; but in 
dreary winter, when the scatter-brained Robin has forgot- 
ten his alarm ery of ‘Quick-Quick-Quick !’ the dear little 
bird will find a warm spot in which to sun himself after 
a hard-earned meal of gleaned weed-seeds,— for like all 
of his tribe he is a valiant Weed Warrior, working in the 
home-fields when other birds have followed the sun for 
richer fare,— and, after swelling his throat vainly for a few 
moments, begin to whisper a song, as if in a dream, that 
finally grows strong and clear. 
“Yes, neither winter nor the darkness of night dis- 
hearten the Song Sparrow. Last season, in the darkest 
of summer nights, when some slight sound had awakened 
the feathered sleepers, I have heard a few subdued bars of 
