THE HOUSE wren's NOTION OF ARCHITECTURE 175 



its eastern congener that one account wonld do for both. We 

 have only to remember that it does not yet generally avail 

 itself of the artificial accommodations that its relative usually 

 selects, for the simple reason that there are comparatively few 

 such resorts to be found \yhere it lives. Nevertheless, it shows 

 the same readiness to do so whenever opportunity offers, and 

 is rapidly growing semi-domesticated in settled parts of the 

 West. The nests of both birds are remarkable for the endless 

 variety of the materials of which they are composed, the dimen- 

 sions which they sometimes attain, and the diversity of the 

 sites selected for them. The birds seem to be afflicted with an 

 insanahilc construendi cacoethcs (to borrow a simile from Juvenal), 

 which impels them to keep on building after they have built 

 enough for any practicable purpose. Their notion seems to be, 

 that whatever place they select, be it large or small, must be 

 completely tilled with a lot of rubbish before they can feel com- 

 fortable about it. When they nest in a knot-hole, or any cavity 

 of inconsiderable dimensions, the structure is a mass of sticks 

 and other trash of reasonable bulk ; but the case is otherwise 

 when they get behind a loose weather-board, for instance, 

 where there is room enough for a dozen nests; then they never 

 know when to stop. I witnessed a curious illustration of their 

 "insane"' propensities in one case where a pair found their 

 way through a knot-hole into one of those sma'l sheds which 

 stands in the back-yard, with a well-worn path leading to the 

 house, showing its daily use. (It should be premised that a 

 wren likes to get into its retreat through the smallest possible 

 <»rifice; if the entrance be small enough, there cannot be too 

 much room inside; and, when the hole is unnecessarily large, 

 it is often closed up to the right size.) Having entered through 

 a nice little hole, into a dark place, the birds evidently supposed 

 it was all right inside, and began to build in a corner under 

 the roof, where the joists came together. Though annoyed by 

 frequent interruption, the indefatnigable little creatures, with 

 almost painful diligence, lugged in their sticks till they had 

 made a pile that wonld fill a bushel, and I cannot say they 

 would not hav(^ (ibed the whole shed had they not been com- 

 pelled to desist; for they were voted a nuisance, and the hole 

 was stopped up. The size of the sticks they carried in was 

 enormous in comparison with their own stature ; it seemed as 

 if they could not lift them, much less drag the crooked pieces 

 through such a narrow orifice. These coarse materials, it will 



