WHERE BIRDS ROOST. 



117 



residents in my neighborhood, flew up here and 

 there out of the deep grass. They seemed to be 

 hidden somewhere until I came near, and then they 

 would suddenly dart up as if they had emerged from 

 a hole in the ground. 



This unexpected behavior led me to investigate ; 

 and I soon found that in many places there were 

 cosey apartments hollowed out under the long, thick 

 tufts of marsh grass, with neat entrances at one side 

 like the door of an Eskimo hut. These hollows 

 gave ample evidence of having been occupied by 

 the birds, so that there could be no doubt about 

 their being bird bedrooms. Very frequently they 

 were burrowed in the sides of the mounds of sod 

 raised by the winter frosts, and were thus lifted 

 above the intervening hollows, which contained ice- 

 cold water. In every case the overhanging grass 

 made a thatched roof to carry off the rain. 



I do not mean to say that these little dugouts 

 were made by the birds themselves. Perhaps they 

 were, but it is more probable that they had been 

 scooped out the previous summer by field-mice, and 

 had only been appropriated for sleeping-apartments 

 by the sparrows. However that may be, they were 

 exceedingly cunning and cosey ; and soft must have 

 been the slumbers of the feathered occupants while 

 the wintry blasts howled unharming above them. 



Prior to that discovery I had supposed, with most 

 people, that all birds roost in trees and bushes. 

 Later researches have proved how wide of the truth 

 one's unverified hypotheses may be. A week or so 



