THE SONG-SPARROW. 55 



anywhere else. It is dark and sheltered here, 

 and the birds have a way of creeping into places 

 nobody else would think of. And their nests are 

 always dark in color, suiting the shadows where 

 they are placed. The base is of grasses or little 

 twigs, but the inside is lined very thickly with 

 black horsehair. We have got into the habit of 

 picking up the combings when the horse is 

 groomed, all the year round, and tying it about 

 low tree-limbs or sticking it in the cracks of the 

 woodshed. Song-sparrow finds it in due time. 

 We have had light bay horses, but combings from 

 these the sparrows never choose. They leave the 

 red hairs for the linnets, who build where the sun 

 shines, more than in the shadows. Light colors 

 are not so readily seen in the bright light as in 

 darker places^ And it would never do for the 

 song-sparrows to build their nests in plain sight. 

 They place them too low. So they have their 

 own way of hiding them. Sometimes they nest 

 in our bamboo thickets. When the young are 

 half-fledged, they slip out of the nest and slide 

 down the smooth bamboo stalks to the close 

 growth below, where they are safe from cats and 

 other enemies. 



The way they have of slipping out of the nest 

 before they are able to fly gets them into many 



