Retrospective CiHticisin, 739 



locality. Although it certainly is not always the case, yet it 

 so very generally is so, that I think it is not surprising that 

 Montagu made this assertion. Thus, if a wren build in a 

 haystack, the front of the nest is generally composed of the 

 hay from the haystack ; if it be built on a bush by the side 

 of a river, and (which is frequently the case) below floodmark, 

 it is generally covered on the outside with the rubbish which 

 has been left there by the flood; and if it build in a mossy 

 stump, the front of the nest is composed of the dark-coloured 

 moss which grows there. — 1F. G, ' Ctithefro^, Lancashif^ 

 Mai/ 2. 1832. ^nVnC\ ^\^>rn a.-.v,u.(:> 



T. G., in a subsequent communication, dated June Sy. 

 1832, thus pursues this subject : — 



■ ' Along with my last letter I sent some wrens' nests line^ 

 with feathers; and I could easily have increased them to a 

 dozen of the same sort, only I did not wish to deprive so 

 many of my little favourites of their eggs and young. Every 

 day convinces me more decidedly that I am right, both with 

 regard to the lining of the wren's nest, and as to the cock- 

 nests also. The nests I send you will prove the former, and 

 I know of at least twenty instances of the latter, in nests 

 which I have known of all through the spring, from April to 

 the present time, which have remained in the same unfinished 

 state, although they are not forsaken, as I have found the 

 birds in them in several instances when I have examined. I 

 found one of these nests, on the 10th of April, under *^ 

 bank on the side of the river ; and I examined it repeatedly 

 through April and May, and always found it in the same 

 state, although there was always a pair of wrens about, and 

 I could find no other nest ; yet I am sure there must have 

 been another; for, in the beginning of this month (June), 

 there were some young wrens which had evidently only just 

 come out of the nest, and there were only two or three bushes 

 grew thereabouts ; so that it is not probable they had come 

 from any other quarter. But the bushes were filled with 

 leaves and other rubbish brought down by the floods ; and I 

 suppose the nest had been built among this rubbish. How- 

 ever, when I heard them, I looked out for another nest, as I 

 believe (notwithstanding that Montagu says, " It is few birds, 

 if any, that would produce a second lot of eggs, in the same 

 season, if unmolested ") that most of the small birds, which 

 are early breeders, build a second time, even when they suc- 

 ceed in bringing out the first brood. I have had proof of 

 this (if any thing can be considered proof, except marking the 

 birds) in the throstle, the blackbird, the wren, the redbreast, 

 and the hedge sparrow, whose second nests may be found 



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