BIRDS' NESTS. 77 



knees in water, and, like your thrush, as still 

 as if they were stuffed; but you must not 

 suppose that they suffer from the cold as much 

 as we should if we were to take their place. 

 It does not follow, you see, that what you 

 think unpleasant and comfortless, is so in 

 reality to the animals to whom God has given 

 a nature different from yours. There is a bird 

 in the Arctic regions, which has been seen 

 flying about and perching on crags of ice which 

 never melt, where there are no fields to be 

 green with grass, and there are no living things 

 but itself; where the tops of the rocks are 

 covered with snow, and if sometimes the face 

 of a cliff is uncovered, it bears no vegetation, 

 but a lichen so thin that you could scarcely 

 scrape it from the rock with a knife. A dismal 

 region, indeed, we should think it ; but do you 

 suppose that the snow -bun ting would stay 

 there if it suffered as much from cold as we 

 do ? No ; since it has the powder of flying, it 

 would use its wings to some purpose, and seek 



