THINGS TO SEE THIS WINTER 43 



Did you ever ask yourself the question ? Go forth, 

 then, as the dusk begins to fall one of these chill 

 winter days and try to see " what comes o' " the 

 birds, where they sleep these winter nights. You 

 will find an account of my own watching in a chapter 

 called "Birds' Winter Beds" in "Wild Life Near 

 Home." 



VII 



You will come back from your watching in the dusk 

 with the feeling that a winter night for the birds 

 is unspeakably dreary, perilous, and chill. You will 

 close the door on the darkness outside with a shiver 

 as much from dread as from the cold. 



" Listening the doors an' winnocks rattle," 



you will think of the partridge beneath the snow, the 

 crow in his swaying pine-top, the kinglet in the close- 

 armed cedar, the wild duck riding out the storm in 

 his freezing water-hole, and you will be glad for 

 your four thick walls and downy blankets, and you 

 will wonder how any creature can live through the 

 long, long night of cold and dark and storm. But 

 there is another view of this same picture; another 

 picture, rather, of this same stormy, bitter night 

 which you must not miss seeing. Go out to see how 

 the animals sleep, what beds they have, what covers 

 to keep off the cold: the mice in the corn-shocks; 

 the muskrats in their thick mud homes; the red 

 squirrels in their rocking, wind-swung beds, so soft 



