THE HOUSE WREN. 79 



must be completely filled with a lot of rubbish before they can feel com- 

 I'ortable about it. When they nest in a knot-hole, or any cavity of in- 

 considerable dimensions', the structure is a mass of sticks and other 

 trash of reasonable bulk; but the case is otherwise when they get be- 

 hind a loose weather-board, for instance, where there is room enough 

 for a dozen nests : then they never know when to stop. I witnessed a 

 curious illustration of their " insane " propensities in one case where a 

 pair found their way through a knot-hole into one of those small sheds 

 which stands in the back-yard, with a well-worn path leading to the 

 house, showing its daily use. (Jt should be premised that a wren likes 

 to get into its retreat through the smallest possible orifice. If the en- 

 trance be small enough, there cannot be too much room inside; and 

 when the hole is unnecessarily large it is often closed up to the righf 

 size.) Having entered through a nice little hole, into a dark place, the 

 birds evidently supposed it was all right inside, and began to build in a 

 corner under the roof, where the joists came together. Though annoyed 

 by frequent interruption, the indefatigable little creatures, with almost 

 painful diligence, lugged in their sticks till they had made a pile that 

 would fill a bushel, and I cunnot say they would not have filled the 

 whole shed had they not been compelled to desist; for they were voted 

 a nuisance, and the hole was stopped up. The size of the sticks they 

 carried in was enormous in comparison with their own stature; it 

 seemed as if they could not lift them, much less drag the crooked pieces 

 through such a narrow orifice. These coarse materials, it will be re- 

 membered, are only the foundation of a nest, as it were; their use in 

 places where there is no real occasion for such a mass of trash is evi- 

 dently the remaining trace of primitive habits. 



In central California, however, Dr, Cooper has observed a 

 remarkable fact in connection with this habit on the part of 

 Farkmann's wren, which, he thinks, might also be found true 

 in the case of the eastern wrens, especially in the southern states 

 where the summers are long. Watching the wrens in his gar- 

 den, Dr. Cooper assures us that their labor is not all thrown 

 away, or simply a means of amusement, for at least one extra 

 nest is sometimes used for the purpose of raising an additional 

 family by a single pair of wrens simultaneously with the first 

 brood! In 1876, a pair arrived at Haywood, Dr. Cooper's 

 home, on April 20 (unusually late), and lost no time in build- 

 ing a nest in a bird-house on a pole. As soon as tliis nest was 



