Why, they have nests, you say. Yes, they had 

 nests in the summer, and then, perhaps, one of 

 the parent birds may be said to have slept in the 

 nest during the weeks of incubation and rearing 

 of the young. But nests are cradles, not beds, 

 and are never used by even the young birds from 

 the day they leave them. Muskrats build houses, 

 foxes have holes, and squirrels sleep in true nests ; 

 but of the birds it can be said, "they have not 

 where to lay their heads." They sleep upon 

 their feet in the grass, in hollow trees, and among 

 the branches ; but, at best, such a bed is no more 

 than a roost. A large part of the year this roost 

 is new every night, so that the question of a 

 sleeping-place during the winter is most serious. 



The cheerful little goldfinches, that bend the 

 dried ragweeds and grass-stalks down and scatter 

 their chaff over the snow, sleep in the thick 

 cedars and pines. These warm, close -limbed 

 evergreens I have found to be the lodging-houses 

 of many of the smaller winter birds the fox- 

 colored sparrow, snowbird, crossbill, and some- 

 times of the chickadee, though he usually tucks 

 his little black cap under his wing in a wood- 

 pecker's hole. 



[36] 



