332 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



Tit especially loves a haystack, and will return 

 night after night to the accustomed roost. These 

 birds generally roost just under the eaves formed 

 by the overhanging thatch ; but very often they 

 make holes in the side to sleep in. The side 

 opposite to the direction in which the wind is 

 blowing is invariably selected, all the holes on 

 the weather side being deserted. Very rarely 

 indeed does more than one bird at a time sleep 

 in the same hole. I have once or twice found a 

 pair of Wrens sleeping in company, and Titmice 

 less frequently still. The stacks in the farmyards 

 are almost exclusively used by House Sparrows. 

 Though Buntings, Chaffinches, and Greenfinches 

 may be in these places in abundance during the 

 day, it is rarely that they roost in the stacks, and 

 never do so if evergreens are near at hand. 

 Haystacks and those of oats are preferred to 

 wheat, because in the latter the straw is hard and 

 coarse. Vast numbers of Sparrows roost together 

 in one stack, many repairing to them before sun- 

 set. All birds sleep very lightly, and the least 

 noise usually startles them from their roosting- 

 place, and you may hear bird after bird fluttering 

 away into the darkness, dazed and bewildered. 

 Ivy is another haunt of bird life; Sparrows, 

 Blackbirds, Wrens, and Titmice are the most 

 usual frequenters of this plant when growing 

 over walls and buildings. 



Many birds sleep in holes sometimes those 

 in which they rear their young, often in ones 



