24 ANORTHURA TROGLODYTES. 



mentioned that during the last severe winter, 1837-8, all 

 the nests of the kitty-wrens which wanted the lining of 

 feathers, were occupied by them as their places of repose. 

 I have this winter paid a little more attention to this curious 

 fact. In June last, in a plantation in my neighbourhood, 

 a pair of wrens built three nests at no great distance from 

 each other. The one in which they reared seven young ones had 

 a lining of feathers, the other two had none. Every night this 

 winter, when the ground was covered with snow, or the wea- 

 ther was very cold, one of the nests without the feathers was 

 inhabited, I suppose, by the same family, as one of the wrens 

 a little after sunset stood within a few inches of the nest and 

 continued chirring until the other eight arrived. It was amus- 

 ing to observe with what astonishing rapidity they answered 

 the call, and flew from all quarters to their tight little dormitory. 

 Their instinct was wonderful. When the wind was from the 

 west, they occupied the nest which had its mouth to the east, 

 and when the wind was from the east they took possession of 

 the other one which had its aperture to the west." 



The same gentleman, whose observations enrich this volume, 

 has transmitted to me an account of the building of a nest, as 

 extracted from his note-book : " May SO, 1837. — I this day 

 had a favourable opportunity of observing the erection of one 

 of the neatest of our British nests. Yesterday a pair of com- 

 mon Wrens flew about for a considerable time, in a particular 

 spot in my shrubbery, as if in search of a proper situation for 

 constructing the dwelling which should contain their intended 

 brood. About a quarter past six o'clock this morning, they 

 appeared to be engaged in the most serious consultation. They 

 hopped up and down amongst the branches of a Spanish juni- 

 per, each of which they surveyed with particular attention. 

 At seven o'clock, in one of its clefts, about two feet from the 

 ground, with the decayed leaf of a lime tree, the female began 

 to lay the foundation of her building. Although two men were 

 casting a drain within seven yards of it, yet she, like a steady 

 and active workman, was so bent upon the completion of her 

 design, that she laboured as if unaware of their presence. Her 

 perseverance was indeed astonishing, for she sometimes carried 



