BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 293 



roof of a cottage. The nest itself is large for the size 

 of the bird, and is completely covered over, the opening 

 being in the side. It is made of moss and leaves, and 

 sometimes dry grass, and may have a lining of feathers. 

 Incomplete nests, popularly termed 'cocks' nests,' are 

 frequently found near the real one. The eggs are marked 

 with reddish spots, and are normally from six to eight 

 in number ; the much larger clutches sometimes recorded 

 may be the produce of more than one hen, A single 

 pair rears two broods in a season. The Wren is mainly 

 insectivorous, but in winter it has to take many different 

 kinds of food. At that season it habitually resorts to old 

 nests and other sheltered roosting-places. 



A bird at once so common and so easily recognised has 

 naturally many popular names, such as ' Jenny Wren ' ; and, 

 on the other hand, the term 'Wren' has been misapplied 

 to other less familiar birds, through a fancied resemblance, 

 probably more in size than in anything else. Thus the 

 ' Golden-crested Wren,' the ' Willow- Wren,' and the ' Wood- 

 Wren' are all strictly Warblers. 



Family, SITTID^ (Nut-Hatches). 



THE NUT-HATCH 



(5itta c£esia). 



Plate 104. 



The Nut-hatch is an inconspicuous and not very familiar 

 little bird, which is the sole British representative of its 

 family, but it is not very far removed from the well-known 

 Titmice presently to be described. The Nut-hatch lives 

 in old woodlands, and in summer subsists mainly on insects. 

 These it searches for both on the ground and on the bark 



