148 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
vigorous, bustling industry and pert independence; and 
its share in the tragic story of “ Who killed Cock Robin ?” 
will ever make it familiar to our children. 
It is always interesting to watch the active vagaries of 
these birds as they half flit, half creep in the bushes and 
hedges of our gardens; they are bold little creatures, 
approaching within a yard or two without fear, but at 
the same time vigilantly alive to secure their own 
safety. While I write there is one in a barberry bush 
just outside my window, so busy and bustling in its 
activity, and with its tail cocked up at right angles with 
such a consequential air, as fairly to provoke a burst of 
laughter from my children. 
I hardly know any bird that employs such various 
materials in the construction of its nest as the wren. 
Moss is the most generally used, but it seems to avail 
itself of those substances which lie most conveniently 
for use, and these are often selected with an evident 
view to concealment, or at least that end is attained, 
whether designedly or not. On the other hand, sites 
for the nest are frequently chosen in the most public 
situations, as though privacy was scorned ; but these are 
exceptions. 
It has often been noticed as a singular circumstance 
that so many unfinished nests of the wren should be 
found, and one year I counted six at one time in the 
creepers outside a summer-house or rustic temple in the 
pleasure grounds at Thoresby, within the space of a few 
yards. They were in various stages of construction, 
though none of them were completed, but seemed to 
have been abandoned one after the other. A writer in 
Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 568, 
broached the theory that the male bird, from want of 
