108 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



found dead, tangled in the hairs of a pony's tail. 

 The chickadee often lights on the backs of domes- 

 tic cattle and plucks out hair with which to line 

 some snug cavity near by for his nest. Before 

 the cattle came his ancestors were undoubtedly 

 in the habit of helping themselves from the deer's 

 stock of "ole do's," as they have been observed 

 getting their building material from the deer in 

 zoological parks. 



Of course the hair of deer and similar animals 

 falls out with the motions of the creatures, or 

 is brushed out by bushes and twigs ; but we must 

 hope that the shedding place of a porcupine is at 

 a distance from his customary haunts; it would 

 be so uncomfortable to run across a shred of 

 one's old clothes — if one were a porcupine! 



The skin of birds and animals wears away in 

 small flakes, but when a reptile changes to a new 

 suit of clothes, the old is shed almost entire. A 

 frog after shedding its skin will very often turn 

 round and swallow it, establishing the frog maxim 

 1 ' every frog his own old clothes bag ! ' ' 



Birds, which exhibit so many idiosyncrasies, 

 appear again as utilizers of old clothes ; although 

 when a crested flycatcher weaves a long snakeskin 

 into the fabric of its nest, it seems more from the 

 standpoint of a curio collector — as some people 

 delight in old worn brass and blue china ! There 

 is another if less artistic theory for this peculi- 

 arity of the crested flycatcher. The skin of a 



