202 THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



yvrcns often sing from the roof of an abandoned fiat-boat, '^^^len tbc song is finisbcd, 

 they creep from one board to another, thrust themselves tlirough an auger-hole, entering 

 the boat's side at one place, and peeping out at another." 

 Clai'e asks justly : — 



" Why is tlic cuckoo's niclodj' pi-ofcn-'d, 



And nightingak''s rich song so fondly prais'd, 



In poets' rhymes ? Is there no other bird 



Of nature's minstrelsy, that oft hath rais'd 



One's heart to ecstasy and mirth so well ? 



I judge not how another's taste is caught ; 



A\'ith mine are other birds that bear the hell, 



Whose song hath crowds of happy memories brought ; 



Such the wood-robin singing in the dell, 



And little -n'rcn, that many a time hath sought 



Shelter fi'om showers in huts where I may dwell. 



In early spring, the tenant of the plain. 



Tending my sheep ; and still they come to tell 



The happy stories of the past again." 



A remarkable event in the economy of this bird took place during the same 

 winter,* in the total disappearance of the whole tribe, the natives as well as the 

 strangers, throughout Scotland and the north of England. This happened towards the 

 conclusion of the following January, and a few days previous to the long-continued 

 snow-storm so severely felt through the northern counties of England, and along the 

 east of Scotland. The range and destination of this migration were undiscovered, but it 

 must in all probability have been a distant one, from the fact of not a single pair having 

 returned to breed, or to pass the succeeding summer, in the districts they had been 

 known to frequent ; nor was one of the species to be seen till the following October, whicli 

 is about the usual time for receiving the annual accession of strangers to our own 

 indigenous birds. 



Mr. Thompson, in his paper on the "Birds of Ireland," introduces the following note 

 from the late ^Ir. T. F. Neligan, of Tralcc: — "To htmt the wren is a favourite pa.stime 

 of the peasantry of Kerry, on Cliristmas-day. This they do, each using two slicks, one 

 to beat the bushes, the other to fling at the bird. It was the boast of an old m;in, who 

 latelv died at the age of a hvmdrcd, that he had hunted the wren for the last eighty years 

 on a C'lnistnuis-day. On St. Stephen's-day, the children exhibit the slaughtered birds on 

 an ivv bush, decked with ribbons of various colours, singing the well-know^l song, ' The 

 wren, the wren, the king of all birds,' and thus collect money." We believe that this 

 degrading practice is fiiUing into disuse. The wren, from some cause or other, which v.-e 

 cannot trace out, has in variotis countries, and from a very early period, been called the 

 king of birds. It was called paaiXoi^ by the Greeks, and reported to fight with the eagle. 

 The Italians call it reattlno (little king), rr di nirpi' (king of the hedge), and re (/i'(//i 

 iiccclli (king of the birds); the Spaniards, reijezuelo (little king); the Portuguese, aro re 

 (king l)Ird) ; the French, roitelet and roi dp froidttre; tlie Germans, nchneekmig (snow 

 kill"'), and tlntni-houia fthorn-king). Similar titles have been given to (he gold-crest, Inii 

 in this instance the reason is manifest — it wears the semblance of a golden crown. 



But, let us listen to one of our ijoets : — 



There is a bay, all still and lone. 

 And in the shade one broad gray stone, 

 • Whore at tlie evening hour, 

 Tlic sun upon the water weaves 

 Motions of light among the leaves 

 Of a low-hanging bower; 



• Memoirs of Werneriau Society, vol. v. 



