WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



sure, they make burrows for lack of other suita- 

 ble retreats ; but where they dwell, as is more usual, 

 in woodland, they seek hollows in stumps and trees, 

 sometimes many feet above the ground (for they 

 are most excellent climbers), and there construct 

 warm nests of various soft materials. 



One of their favorite methods is to take posses- 

 sion of a deep old bird's-nest, such as those of the 

 red - winged blackbird, wood - thrush, or red - eyed 

 vireo, and fill it with their own furniture. I find 

 a pretty example described in one of the essays of 

 the Rev. Dallas Love Sharp, who found a mouse 

 inhabiting a refurnished wood-thrush's nest in 

 snowy Massachusetts : 



'"In spite of the exposure,'' he says, ''this must 

 be a warm bed. The walls are thick and well 

 plastered with mud, and are packed inside with 

 fine, shredded bark which the mouse himself has 

 pulled from the dead chestnut limbs, or, more like- 

 ly, has taken from a deserted crow's nest. The 

 whole is thatched with a roof of shredded bark, 

 so neatly laid that it sheds the water perfectlj^ 

 The entrance is on the side, just over the edge of 

 the original structure, but so shielded by the ex- 

 tended roof that the rain and snow never beat in. 

 The thrushes did their work well; the nest is se- 



185 



