152 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



Cock pheasants go to roost crowing, as if to give a 

 signal to others that it is time for bed. Young 

 pheasants, reared by hand, soon find their way up 

 into trees at roosting-time after they have been turned 

 into a covert ; but until they take to the trees as a 

 matter of course, the gamekeeper may have some 

 anxious nights, as they are at the mercy of foxes if 

 they roost on the ground, or too low in trees. 



Partridges are more clever, and more vigilant. 

 They know well that the safest place where they can 

 roost is an open space on the ground. In some little 

 hollow of an open field a covey of twenty birds will 

 roost together, wing to wing, in a compact circle. 



Guinea-fowl are especially wide-awake. They will 

 go very high into trees to roost, and in hard weather 

 will mount the trees by day. They break out into 

 wild alarm-notes at the least disturbance. 



Birds will sleep in what seem to us to be curious, 

 uncomfortable, and insecure positions. Some, like 

 the heron, may go to sleep when standing on one leg, 

 with the other drawn up and hidden among the 

 feathers of the breast, while the head is turned round 

 and buried in the back. Small birds may be seen 

 sleeping cuddled together on slender twigs, off which 

 one might think they would easily fall. We observe 

 with wonder the ease with which swallows rest on so 

 thin a perch as a telegraph wire. 



But when once a perching bird's claws have gripped 

 a perch, it is more difficult for the bird to rise up and 

 depart than to fall off. For directly the bird is at rest 

 on the perch, muscles are brought into play that 

 automatically lock the claws, and in the deepest sleep 

 the grip cannot be relaxed. There are tendons which 

 pass direct from the muscles of the thigh which 

 bend both the knee and the toes, the bird sleeping 



