THE WREN. 307 



to another place of concealment, but rarely exposing itself 

 by doing more than this. When hunting for its food, 

 which is considered to be almost exclusively insects, it 

 searches diligently holes and crannies of all kinds, and 

 in all substances. I have known one make its way 

 habitually through a zinc pipe into a green-house, and do 

 much service there by picking aphides from the slender 

 stalks of herbaceous plants, which bent into the form of an 

 arch under even its trifling weight. While thus occupied 

 it has suffered me to come within arm's length, but has 

 taken no notice of me. Generally, it displays little fear 

 of man ; but, though in winter it resorts to the neigh- 

 bourhood of houses in quest of food, it shows no dis- 

 position, like the Redbreast, to enter on terms of intimacy, 

 nor is it sociable either with its own kind or other birds. 

 Its call-note is a simple " chip, chip," which often betrays 

 its vicinity when it is itself concealed from sight. Its 

 proper song is full, loud, clear, and powerful, rapidly 

 executed and terminating in a trill or shake, followed by 

 two or three unimportant notes. This it utters occasion- 

 ally in autumn and winter. About the middle of March 

 the song of the Wren is among the most frequent sounds 

 of the country. At this season one may often hear in 

 a garden the roundelay of a Wren poured forth from 

 the concealment of a low shrub ; and, immediately that 

 it is completed, a precisely similar lay bursts forth from 

 another bush some twenty yards off. No sooner is 

 this ended than it is answered, and so the vocal duel 

 proceeds, the birds never interfering with each other's 

 song, but uttering in turns the same combinations and 

 arrangement of notes, just as if they were reading off 

 copies of a score printed from the same type.* 



But the season is coming on when the Wren has to 

 be occupied with other things than singing down a 

 rival. Nest-making is with this bird something more 



* I have heard the same musical contest in August. 

 X 2 



