WHERE BIRDS ROOST. DEY 
residents in my neighborhood, flew up here and 
there out of the deep grass. They seemed to be 
hidden somewhere until I came near, and then they 
would suddenly dart up as if they had emerged from 
a hole in the ground. 
This unexpected behavior led me to investigate ; 
and I soon found that in many places there were 
cosey apartments hollowed out under the long, thick 
tufts of marsh grass, with neat entrances at one side 
like the door of an Eskimo hut. ‘These hollows 
gave ample evidence of having been occupied by 
the birds, so that there could be no doubt about 
their being bird bedrooms. Very frequently they 
were burrowed in the sides of the mounds of sod 
raised by the winter frosts, and were thus lifted 
above the intervening hollows, which contained ice- 
cold water. In every case the overhanging grass 
made a thatched roof to carry off the rain. 
I do not mean to say that these little dugouts 
were made by the birds themselves. Perhaps they 
were, but it is more probable that they had been 
scooped out the previous summer by field-mice, and 
had only been appropriated for sleeping-apartments 
by the sparrows. However that may be, they were 
exceedingly cunning and cosey; and soft must have 
been the slumbers of the feathered occupants while 
the wintry blasts howled unharming above them. 
Prior to that discovery I had supposed, with most 
people, that all birds roost in trees and bushes. 
Later researches have proved how wide of the truth 
one’s unverified hypotheses may be. A week or so 
