506 THE COMMON WREN. 



is not common to all wrens, although it is to this species in 

 a remarkable degree." Its flight is low, limited to short 

 distances, and flits with rapid beats of its short wings. It is 

 always dodging amongst the roots of shrubs and bushes to hide 

 itself, depending less on flight than the facility to creep (like a 

 mouse) out of sight into holes or crevices. I never saw this 

 more exemplified than on March 29th, 1894. A pair had been 

 flitting about the Kinness Burn at Abbey Park, near an old 

 whin bush. I was sorry to see one of them, unable to fly, 

 trying to hide itself, until it came to a tuft of long grass at the 

 burnside, which it wriggled underneath, a'nd lay panting in its 

 fancied retreat — it could go no further. (It had been shot by a 

 callous loafer when looking for a place to build, for, two days 

 after, the male began to build a nest himself in our shed at the 

 burnside.) I was vexed, and turned away. Although shy, it is 

 very sprightly, and when it flits about, cocking its little tail 

 straight up, jerking its head, it seems the essence of pertness. 

 Next to the robin, we have no bird better known than the 

 little jenny wren, the pair being called in old legends " God's 

 own cock and hen." It is found everywhere — from Land's 

 End to John o' Groat's, in the Orkneys and Shetland. For 

 such a wee bird it has a loud and sweetly varied song, which, 

 like the robin's, is often heard in winter ; these being almost 

 the only two birds which cheer us in winter, which 

 philosophic Wordsworth notes by coupling them together : — 



" From behind the roof 

 Rose the slim ash and massy sycamore, 

 Blending their diverse foliage with the green 

 Of ivy, flourishing and thick, that clasped 

 The huge round chimneys, harbour of delight 

 For wren and redbreast — where they sit and sing 

 Their slender ditties when the trees are bare." 



Burns' fine song, "Oh, wert thou in the cauld blast" was also 

 founded on the old rant : — 



" The robin came to the wren's nest, 

 And keekit in, and keekit in ; 

 Oh, weel's mo on your auld pow, 

 Wad ye be in, wad ye be in." 



And even in nursery rhymes they are quaintly coupled 

 together, for instance : — 



"The robin and the wren 

 Made their parritch in 'a pan, 

 But 'tween the kitchen and the ha', 

 Cock robin lee the parritch fa'." 



