1919- BURKITT. — The Wren. 85 



THE WREN. 



BY J. P. BURKITT. 



The Wren is a queer little bird, as the following will show. 

 In the issue of the Irish Naturalist of November, 1918, I 

 referred to the supposed cocks' nests of this bird, and to 

 one proved case of such a nest, which v/as subsequently 

 occupied. This year I made a study of some Wrens close 

 round my own house. 



Between the 13th and 17th April I found four Wrens 

 building nests — all males, and apparently unpaired ; and 

 in a fifth case, a pair. The last w^as the earliest, and while 

 the female was bringing moss to the inside of the nest, the 

 male was carrying moss a certain distance and then 

 discarding it, as if he might have been building, but his 

 assistance had been disapproved by the female. I found 

 another male building alone on the loth May and another 

 on the 2ist May. I thus saw no nest this year, with whose 

 construction I was acquainted, which was not built by the 

 male. When I say built, I mean the main structure. The 

 female always seems to do the feather lining, and her carrying 

 of moss to the inside of the nest does not necessarily mean 

 that she takes part in the original construction, as she 

 sometimes requires moss to lessen the depth left by the 

 male, &c. I am far from laying it down that the females 

 never build nests, but certainly in this study I have never 

 seen one. My only doubtful case was the earliest one 

 above, which I shall call A, the other cases being B to G. 



Males C and E built a series of nests, probably B also, 

 as I shall show, and G. I could not follow^ up the others 

 on this point. Wrens, hke a number of other birds, have 

 plainly each a definite domain to himself in the breeding 

 season, the frontiers of which he does not cross. And inside 

 these frontiers also the fledged young were fed and cared 

 in the one case in which I watched this process. Inside 

 this domain he may build this series of nests. The case 

 which I could best give attention to was C, the bird's 

 domain being to right and left of the front of my house. 

 I will deal with the others first. 



