and Their Homes 
small hole, and if you stand very still 
perhaps you will see one of the birds 
creep from twig to twig and slip silently 
into this hole. Then she turns round 
inside until her head faces the hole, and 
the long tail sticks out over her head. 
Sometimes two of them are in the nest 
in this curious fashion at the same time. 
Inside it is all comfortably and thickly 
lined with feathers, and here they lay 
several little pointed eggs. There are 
sometimes eight, nine, or even ten of 
these eggs; and when they are all 
hatched and ten little bottle-tits besides 
the parents all live in it, it is very 
closely packed, as you may imagine. 
For the whole nest isn’t much larger 
than a cricket-ball. And then one fine 
day all the little bottle-tits pop out of 
their bottle to see the world. Away 
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