268 SINGING BIRDS. 



just sufficient for her to creep in and out. Within this judi- 

 cious fort is placed the proper nest, of the usual hemispherical 

 figure, formed of layers of dried stalks of grass, and lined with 

 feathers. The eggs, from 6 to 9, are of a reddish flesh-color, 

 sprinkled all over with innumerable fine grains of a somewhat 

 deeper tint. They generally rear two broods in the season : 

 the first take to flight about the beginning of June, and the 

 second in July or August. The young are early capable of 

 providing for their own subsistence and twittering forth their 

 petulant cry of alarm. It is both pleasant and amusing to 

 observe the sociability and activity of these recent nurslings, 

 who seem to move in a body, throwing themselves into antic 

 attitudes, often crowding together into the old nests of other 

 birds, and for some time roosting near their former cradle, 

 under the affectionate eye of their busy parents, who have 

 perhaps already begun to prepare the same nest for a new 

 progeny. Indeed, so prospective and busy is the male that 

 he frequently amuses himself with erecting another mansion 

 even while his mate is still sitting on her eggs ; and this curi- 

 ous 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 ani- 

 mal which they justly hold in abhorrence. The day after this 

 important loss, our little widower had succeeded in introducing 

 to his desolate mansion a second partner, whose welcome 

 appeared by the ecstatic song which the bridegroom now 

 uttered ; after this they remained together, and reared their 

 brood. In the summer of 1830 I found a female Wren who 

 had expired on 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 faith- 

 ful than Wilson's bird, or suspecting some lurking danger, she 



