WHERE BIRDS ROOST. 125 
even slept on the under side of an oblique branch. 
One of them passed one night on a horizontal perch, 
although apparently his slumbers were not quite so 
sound and refreshing es they would have been had 
he roosted in the wonted upright position. Qucerest 
of all, these woodpeckers sometimes selected the 
side of the cage itself for a roosting-place, thrusting 
their claws into the crevice between the door and 
its frame. Wherever they roosted, their tails were 
made to do duty as braces, by being pressed tightly 
against the wall to which they clung. A pair of 
young red-headed woodpeckers behaved in much 
the same way, always preferring to sleep on an 
upright perch. 
During the spring of 1893 I placed in a cage the 
following birds, all taken while in-a half-callow state, 
from the nest: Two cat-birds, one red-winged black- 
bird, one cow-bunting, and two meadow-larks. In 
a few days all of them proclaimed their species, as 
well as the inexorable law of heredity, by selecting 
such roosts as were best adapted to them, and that 
without any instruction whatever from adult birds. 
The meadow-larks almost invariably squatted on the 
grass with which the floor of the cage was lined, 
usually scratching and waddling from side to side 
until they had made cosey hollows to fit their bodies ; 
while the remaining inmates flew up to the perches 
when bed-time came. 
It was quite interesting to look in upon my group 
of sleeping pets of an evening, part of them roosting 
in the lower story of the cage and the rest in the 
