304 CEETHID^. 



even about this, and certainly never thinking it necessary 

 to decamp because it is being watched. To this indifference 

 to the presence of human beings, it owes its name '•' fami- 

 liaris,''' and not, as it might be imagined, to any fondness 

 for their society, which, in fact, it neither courts nor 

 shuns. It is a quiet, inoffensive creature, congregating 

 with no other birds, and being rarely, except in spring, 

 seen in company with even its own species. It builds 

 its nest of small roots and twigs, scraps of bark and grass, 

 and lines it with wool and feathers. A hole in a pollard 

 willow is a favourite place for a nest ; in default of this a 

 hollow in any other tree is selected, or the space between 

 the stump of a tree and a detached portion of bark. It 

 lays from six to nine eggs, which are exceedingly like 

 those of the smaller Tits. 



THE WEEK 



TROGLODYTES VULGARIS. 



Upper plumage reddish brown with transverse dusky bars ; quills barred al- 

 ternately with blaclf and reddish brown ; tail dusky, barred with black ; over 

 the eyes a narrow light streak; under i^arts light reddish brown; the sides and 

 thighs marked with dark streaks. Length three inches and three-quarters ; 

 breadth six inches and a half. Eggs white with a few yellowish red spots 

 towards the larger end, sometimes without spots. 



Throughout the whole of England the Wren is invested 

 with a sanctity peculiar to itself and the Eedbreast. In 

 the west of England I was familiar, as a cliild, with the 

 doggerel rhymes : — 



" Whoso kills a Robin or a Wran 

 Shall never prosper boy nor man." 



In the north it is protected by a similar shield : — 



" Malisons, malisons, mair than ten, 

 Who harries the queen of heaven's Wren." 



In the Isle of Man a legend exists that there " once 

 on a time " lived a wicked enchantress who practised her 



