TROGLODYTID.E — THE WRENS. 151 



in building their nest. Though removed each time the vehicle was used, the 

 pair for a long while persisted in their attempts to make use of this place, at 

 last even depositing their eggs on the bare bottom of the box. It Avas two 

 or three weeks before they finally desisted from their vain attempts. 



Sometimes this bird will build a nest in a large cavity, holding perhaps a 

 bushel. Before the cup of the nest is completed, the birds will generally 

 endeavor to fill the entire space with sticks and various other convenient 

 substances. Where the entrance is unnecessariW large they will generally 

 contract it by building about it a barricade of sticks, leaving only a small 

 entrance. In tlie midst of these masses of material they construct a com- 

 pact, cup-shaped, inner nest, hemispherical in shape, composed of finer ma- 

 terials and warmly lined with the fur of small quadrupeds, and with soft 

 feathers. If the eggs are taken as the female is depositing them, she will 

 continue to lay quite a long while. In one instance eighteen were taken, 

 after which the birds were let alone and raised a brood of seven. 



During the months of May and June the male is a constant and remark- 

 able singer. His song is loud, clear, and shrill, given with great animation 

 and rapidity, the performer evincing great jealousy of any interruption, often 

 leaving off abruptly in the midst of his song to literally " pitch in " upon 

 any rival who may presume to compete with him. 



If a cat or any unwelcome visitor approach the nest, angry vociferations 

 succeed to his sprightly song, and he will swoop in rapid flights across the 

 head or back of the intruder, even at the apparent risk of his life. 



Where several pairs occupy the same garden, their contests are frequent, 

 noisy, and generally quite amusing. In their fights with other birds for the 

 possession of a coveted hollow, their skill at barricading frequently enables 

 the Wrens to keep triumphant possession against birds much more powerful 

 than themselves. 



Their food is exclusively insectivorous, and of a class of destructive in- 

 sects that render them great benefactors to the farmer. JMr. Kennicott 

 ascertained that a single pair of Wrens carried to their young about a thou- 

 sand insects in a single day. 



The young, when they leave their nest, keep together for some time, mov- 

 ing about, an interesting, sociable, and active group, under the charge of their 

 mother, but industrious in supplying their own wants. 



The eggs of the Wren, usually from seven to nine in number, are of a 

 rounded-oval shape, at times nearly as broad as long. Tlieir ground-color i'^ 

 white, but they are so thickly studded with markings and fine spots of red- 

 dish-brown, with a few occasional points of purplish-slate, as to conceal their 

 ground. Their shape varies from nearly spherical to an oblong-oval, some 

 measuring .60 by .55 of an inch, others with tlie same breadth having a 

 length of .67 of an inch. 



Under the name of Troglodytes americanns, or Wood Wren, Mr. Audubon 

 figured and described as a distinct species what is probably only a somewhat 



