190 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



as a pillow, while the long shoulder-feathers 

 cover the head like a counterpane. 



Some birds, as you all know, sleep on the 

 ground, sitting flat down, but many roost on 

 a perch, and many must have wondered how 

 the perching bird holds on in its sleep, especi- 

 ally when the wind is blowing through the 

 trees. You know if you fall asleep in a chair 

 with something in your hand, you are soon 

 waked by the thing dropping out of the hand, 

 which has relaxed itself as soon as you lost 

 consciousness; and it seems as if the bird, 

 when he drops off to sleep, ought to drop off 

 his perch as well. The reason why he does 

 not is quite simple the muscles and sinews 

 in his legs are so arranged that when the leg 

 is bent up towards the body the toes are 

 pulled together, and so they hold on to the 

 perch without any effort or thought at all. 

 You can easily test this with a dead chicken, 

 if it is not stiff, and you can watch it in a live 

 one walking as the leg is bent the toes close. 

 It needs very little bending of the leg to close 

 the toes, and so a great many birds sleep 

 standing on their perches, with the leg only 

 slightly bent, and generally these tuck up one 



