WINTER FOOD OF BIRDS. 
121 
exertions of two little creatures in providing for, and 
feeding, with all the incumbrances of feathers and tails, 
fourteen young ones, in such a situation, surpasses in 
diligence and ingenuity the efforts of any other birds, 
persevering as they are, that I am acquainted with. 
We might naturally suppose that by the end of winter, 
all those little birds which are solely supported by in- 
sect food would find some difficulty in providing for 
their wants, having consumed by their numbers and 
exertions nearly all that store of provision which had 
been provided in the summer and deposited in safety ; 
but I have found the stomachs of the tree-creeper, and 
this small tit-mouse, even in February, quite filled with 
parts of coleopterous creatures, which by their activity 
and perseverance they had been enabled to procure be- 
neath the mosses on the branches, and from the chinks 
in the bark of trees, where they had retired in autumn. 
Such plenty being procurable after the supply of so 
many months, renders it apparent that there is no actual 
deficiency of food at any one period of the year. The 
small slugs, and some few insects, may perhaps be con- 
sumed by the severity of winter, but the larger portion 
of them are so constituted, as to derive no injury from 
the inclemency of that season, but afford during many 
months provender to other creatures, multitudes yet 
remaining to continue their races and animate the air, 
when the warm days of spring shall waken them to 
active life. 
The construction and selected situations of the nests 
of birds are as remarkable, as the variety of materials 
employed in them ; the same forms, places, and articles, 
being rarely, perhaps never, found united by the differ- 
ent species, which we should suppose similar neces- 
sities would direct to a uniform provision. Birds that 
build early in the spring seem to require warmth and 
shelter for their young, and the blackbird and the thrush 
line their nests with a plaster of loam, perfectly ex- 
cluding, by these cottage-like walls, the keen icy gales 
of our opening year ; yet should accident bereave the 
parents of their first hopes, they will construct another, 
even when summer is far advanced, upon the model 
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