HOUSE WREN. 425 



the male, that he frequently amuses himself with erect- 

 ing another mansion even while his mate is still sitting 

 on her eggs ; and this curious habit of superfluous labor 

 seems to be more or less common to the whole genus. 



One of these Wrens, according to Wilson, happened 

 to lose his mate by the sly and ravenous approaches 

 of a cat, an animal which they justly hold in abhor- 

 rence. The day after this important loss our little wid- 

 ower had succeeded in introducing to his desolate man- 

 sion a second partner, whose welcome appeared by the 

 ecstatic sonsf which the brideo;room now uttered : after 

 this they remained together, and reared their brood. 

 Last summer (1830), I found a female Wren who had 

 expired in the nest in the abortive act of laying her 

 first egg. I therefore took away the nest from under 

 the edge of the shed in which it was built. The male, 

 however, continued round the place as before, and still 

 cheerfully uttered his accustomed song. Unwilling to 

 leave the premises, he now went to work, and made, 

 unaided, another dwelling, and after a time brought a 

 new mate to take possession, but, less faithful than Wil- 

 son's bird, or suspecting some lurking danger, she for- 

 sook the nest after entering, and never laid in it ; but 

 still the happy warbler continued his uninterrupted lay, 

 apparently in solitude. 



The song of our familiar Wren is loud, sprightly, and 

 tremulous, uttered with peculiar animation, and rapidly 

 repeated ; at first the voice seems ventriloqual and dis- 

 tant, and then bursts forth by efforts into a mellow and 

 echoing warble. The trilling, hurried notes seem to 

 reverberate from the leafy branches in which the musi- 

 cian sits obscured, or is heard from the low roof of the 

 vine-mantled cottage like the shrill and unwearied pipe 

 of some sylvan elf The strain is continued even dur- 

 36* 



