OF “THE BIRDS’ MENTIONED 145 
following a leader, who is changed now and then. 
(Geese on migration fly generally in a V formation, but 
sometimes in a straight line.) Flesh: Edible, but may 
taste fishy if the birds have fed much at the seaside. 
Skin and feathers very thick and shot resisting. The 
birds too are very tenacious of life. Food: Leaves of 
water plants, small fish, insects, worms, slugs, etc. 
Coarse feeders. Feed mostly at night. Nest: In May. 
Situated : On the ground and close to the water almost 
always, but they have been known to build in trees, and 
even inachurch steeple! Made of: Grasses and sticks 
mixed with feathers, and freely lined with their own down. 
The male separates from the female as soon as hatching 
commences, and begins to undergo his moulting not 
getting back his brilliant colours till autumn. The 
mother bird exhibits great anxiety for the young, 
swimming about with them till (in two or three months) 
they can fly (they are then called flappers). The young 
take to the water as soonas hatched. Eggs: Greenish- 
white. Generally eleven or twelve, sometimes as many 
as fifteen. 
18. WREN. COMMON WREN 
(Pages 82-85) 
Troglodytes europeus or vulgaris (one of the Tenu- 
vostres. See Creeper). Syn.: Jenny or Kittie Wren. 
(Wren is from Wrenna, the old Saxon name of the 
B.N. L 
