THE WREN. 103 



snow melted, in holes of walls and other hiding-places, into 

 which they had apparently crept for shelter from the cold. 

 Mr. Hardy, Oldcambus, writing in 1879 upon the effects of 

 the previous winter, mentions that in his neighbourhood the 

 destruction amongst Wrens was very great, and that they 

 had almost disappeared from the woods and deans.^ After 

 the severe snow-storm of 1878-79 had passed away, three 

 of these birds were found by me in holes of the policy-ground 

 wall at Paxton, where they had sought shelter from the 

 piercing cold, and been frozen to death. 



In summer it frequents wooded deans, the margins 

 of plantations, and the sides of the Whitadder, Leader, Eye, 

 and other streams, where it creeps about amongst the roots 

 of the alders, wild roses, and the like. It is also to be found 

 at that season in places overgrown with brambles, whins, 

 sloes, and other shrubs, where it is continually moving 

 about, and 



Frae den to den, 

 Gaes jinking through the thorn. 



Tannahill. 



Towards the end of autumn it approaches our dwelling- 

 houses and gardens, and may be often seen about outhouses 

 and farm buildings, where, with cocked tail and bright eye, it 

 makes itself at home, and when alarmed suddenly disappears 

 in some hiding-place. Mr. Hardy says that it used to frequent 

 the holes and caverns of the greywacke rocks on the sea- 

 coast, until it was killed by the late severe winters.^ The 

 song of the Wren, like that of the Eobin, is continued during 

 the greater part of the year, and is remarkably loud for the 

 size of the bird. Mr. James Small mentions that it is often 

 the first bird to commence singing in the morning on Leader 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Cluh, vol. ix. p. 125. 



' I saw a Wren amongst the rocks near Fast Castle, on the evening of 30th 

 June 1887, when I was watching the salmon-fishers drawing their nets in the sea 

 there. 



