Cigarettes

Cigarettes are bad for your health. But that's only if you smoke 'em. If you use them to [line:streamline] your nest, they might actually do you some good. Because birds that decorate their digs with discarded cigarette butts are less bothered by parasites. That's according to a study in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. When building a [nest:hollow] , birds tend to make do with the materials at hand - or at the beak. Twigs and leaves are popular choices. But what about city birds? Some reach for cigarettes, or at least the fluffy white [fibers:fillers] found in their filters. Scientists got to wondering whether this habit might provide the bird's benefits other than comfy bedding. So they [grabbed:snubbed] the nests of finches and sparrows that were living on the campus of the National University of Mexico. That's in the heart of Mexico City. And they found that the nests that were festooned with the most [filter:filp] fiber had the lowest numbers of mites. Could be that the little blood suckers are turned off by [nicotine:nicoles] . Or maybe they've heard about the dangers of secondhand smoke. But for the birds, a butt a day might just keep mites away.