EUROPEAN WRExV. 21 



small hard seeds, an entire pupa, and numerous fragments of 

 the shells of pup?e and elytra of coleopterous insects." So 

 small a bird having so slender a bill, might doubtless be taken 

 as a typical entomophagist ; but it is probable that no species 

 of this order confines itself exclusively to insects. 



The Wren pairs about the middle of spring, and begins early 

 in April to construct its nest, which varies much in form and 

 composition, according to the locality. One brought me by 

 my son, and which he found while gathering plants in a wood 

 near Melville Castle, is of astonishing size compared with that 

 of its architect, its greatest diameter being seven inches, and 

 its height five. It presents the appearance of a rude mass of 

 decayed vegetables, of an irregularly rounded form. Having 

 been placed on a flat surface under a bank, its base is of a cor- 

 responding form, and is composed of layers of decayed ferns and 

 other plants, mixed with twigs of herbaceous and woody vege- 

 tables. Similar materials have been employed in raising the 

 outer wall of the nest itself, of which the interior is spherical, 

 and three inches in diameter. The wall is composed of mosses 

 of several species, quite fresh and green, and it is arched over 

 with fern leaves and straws. The mosses are curiously inter- 

 woven with fibrous roots and hair of various animals, and the 

 inner surface is even and compact, like coarse felt. To the 

 height of two inches there is a copious lining of large soft 

 feathers, chiefly of the Wood Pigeon, but also of the Pheasant 

 and Domestic Duck, with a few of the Blackbird. The aper- 

 ture, which is in front, and in the form of a low arch, two 

 inches in breadth at the base, and an inch and a half in height, 

 has its lower edge formed of slender twigs, strong herbaceous 

 stalks, and stems of grasses, the rest being felted in the usual 

 manner. This nest is a magazine of botany, there entering in- 

 to its composition, leaves of Fagus sylvatica, fronds of Aspidium 

 dilatatum and A. Filix-mas, blades of Phalaris arundinacea, 

 stems of several grasses and other herbaceous plants, some 

 twigs of the larch and other trees, and four or five species of 

 Hypnum. It contained five eggs, of an elongated oval form, 

 averaging eight lines in length, and six lines in breadth, pure 

 white, with some scattered dots of light red at the larger end. 



