508 



THE COMMON WREN. 



sixteen eggs in one. He went back and found them aL 

 hatched." It adapts the colour of material to the colour of the 

 place. If on a bank, tree, or rock, grey lichens, withered 

 leaves, or grass are selected. If amongst ivy, green moss is 

 used to escape detection. I noticed this on two special 

 occasions. On May 8th, 1856, I got one with eight eggs three 

 feet up amongst ivy close to Abbey Park Garden door. Going 

 in with the gardener, the bird popped out. I looked, but 

 could see nothing. Looking closer, I observed the bunch of 

 green moss amongst the ivy, so like the situation that had she 

 not popped out I would never have seen in. Not far from the 

 ivy, close to the root of a hedge, in Dr Boyd's Glebe, when 

 looking for a willow wren's nest I discovered one covered with 

 withered leaves so like those that lay under the hedge that, had 

 I not seen the bird go in, I could not have got it. It is six 

 inches diameter, sometimes oblong, seven by five, composed of 

 dry leaves, moss, and grass, mixed with fine roots and twigs, 

 interwoven with fibres and some hairs, smooth inside as if 

 felted ; inside, three inches diameter, thickly lined with 

 feathers. The entrance, nearest the top, is only If inch by 

 1J inch high ; the sill neatly made of small twigs, inter- 

 woven into a firm pediment. The most singular nest I ever 

 saw was one interwoven in a small coil of sash-line, hung five 

 feet up on a post in our big woodshed, under the engine shaft ; 

 begun by the male wren this year on April 1st, 1894, after the 

 loafer shot his little mate. The coil was 12 inches by 6 inches, 

 hanging loose on a wooden pin. It remained unfinished for 

 some weeks, but on getting another bride it was finished and 

 nine eggs laid in it, which were hatched, The young ones flew 

 on June 7th. It was most ingeniously constructed ; some of 

 the grass stalks were 22 inches long, interlaced between the 

 coils of the sash-line, and a knot used for the sill. There were 

 not so many feathers inside, but they were large, and coiled 

 round, as the post formed the back of the nest. One before me 

 is 5J long by 2 — the wren being only four inches. So they 

 must have had trouble, and showed sense in the construction of 

 their cradle. They were not afraid. The male pertly sang 

 within two yards of my son busy working in the shed. They 

 have two broods in the year ; being prolific may account for 

 their lives being said to be only three years. It is pert but 

 sensitive. I know an instance, after their eggs were harried 

 thrice, the pair were found dead in their nest. The man told 

 me he first took five eggs from the nest. A fortnight after, 



