THE SECRETS OF THE MEADOW. 189 



stones, so delicate were they in form and color. 

 The willows have also many caverns of various 

 sizes and shapes in their trunks. From one of 

 these, through which and to the depths of which 

 a man's hand could but just pass, a song sparrow 

 sprang as we sauntered past. Fortunate for her 

 that we were friends, for in the cave from which 

 she came lay her five richly decorated eggs. As 

 a rule this sparrow builds a grass nest by a 

 brook bank, flat on the pasture turf, in a low 

 evergreen in a meadow, or in a cup-shaped hol- 

 low in a decaying stump. Among all the song 

 sparrows' nests which my friend and I had seen, 

 none approached this in the security and origi- 

 nality of its location. 



