262 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



An old Irish custom on St. Stephen's Day, and one 

 which has not quite died out, was the " hunting of the 

 Wren " by boys. When captured, it was tied, alive but 

 maimed, to a pole (or, according to Vallancey — " De Reb. 

 Hib.," IV, 13 — tied by the leg in the centre of two hoops 

 placed at right angles A^dth one another) and paraded aroimd 

 the neighbourhood, a few doggerel verses being repeated 

 at each house, while a donation was requested, one version 

 being : — 



The wran, the wran, the King of all birds, 

 St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze : 

 Come, give us a bumper, or give us a cake, 

 Or give vis a copper, for Charity's sake. 



The proceeding is supj)osed to have originated through a 

 Wren having at some former time betrayed the Irish to 

 their enemies by tapping on a drum. Yarrell records a 

 somewhat similar practice in Kerry, where the peasantr\% 

 on Christmas Day, used to hunt the bird with two sticks, 

 " one to beat the bushes, the other to fling at the bird." 

 Bullock also mentions it as prevalent in the Isle of Man, 

 both on Christmas Eve and St. Stephen's Day, and tells us 

 it was founded on a tradition of a beautiful fairy who lured 

 the male inhabitants to a watery grave in the sea, and who 

 to escape subsequent destruction took the form of a Wren, 

 which form she was supposed to be doomed by a spell to 

 re-assume each succeeding New Year's Day, ultimately 

 perishing by human hands. Waldron records a different 

 custom in the Isle of Man of the killing of a Wren on 

 Christmas Day, which was laid on a bier, carried to the 

 church and buried -with the singing of dirges. To my 

 own knowledge this custom of a " Wren hunt " existed in 

 Nottinghamshire also within recent times, the bird 

 being himted along the hedgerows by boys armed with 

 stones, but 1 do not recollect that anything definite was 

 done with the bird when killed or maimed. 



The before-mentioned allusion to the Wren as the " King 

 of all birds " is perhaps explained by the legend of the 

 birds ha\dng agreed to choose as King the one who should 

 soar highest, the place of honour being gained by the Wren, 

 through it having remained on the Eagle's back until the 

 latter had soared to the limit of its power. The Germans, 

 it may be remarked, call the W^ren " Zaunkonig " or 

 " hedge-king : " the Latin rcgulus however is the GOLDEN- 

 CRESTED WREN. In connexion mth this belief in the 

 kingship over other birds, a Twelfth Daj custom of parading 

 a caged Wren in Pembrokeshire, with the lines recited, is 



