80 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



most frequently selected^ where, iu a hole in the inside of a 

 thatched roof, it forms a most conspicnous nest, externally 

 of green moss, and internally of feathers and fine hair. I 

 once found a nest near Henfield, against an ivy-covered oak, 

 the outside of which was entirely composed of the skele- 

 tonized leaves of Einmedium, but was lined as usual. As 

 this plant does not grow wild at all in the south of England, 

 and I have never seen it iu a cottage-garden, the Wren 

 could nowhere have obtained the leaves but from my father's 

 celebrated botanic garden, at least half a mile distant, 



I have a drawing of a Wrcn^s nest which was built in a 

 bunch of old stirrups, which was hanging from a beam in a 

 blacksmith's shop at Preston, near Brighton, and the birds 

 succeeded in bringing up their young, notwithstanding that 

 the hammers of the workmen were frequently passing within 

 a few inches of them. I think the persecution of the Wren, 

 in Sussex, is a thing of the past; but in my younger days 

 it was a regular institution to hunt it at Christmas time, 

 when numbers of boys, on both sides of the hedges, amused 

 themselves by beating the bushes and throwing at the Wren 

 whenever it showed itself, with knobbed sticks about eighteen 

 inches long, called ^^libbets." 



Many authors have mentioned the habit this bird has of 

 beginning to build a number of nests which it never makes 

 use of, and of roosting in little companies in holes in thatch, 

 haystacks, and such situations. In severe weather I once 

 took nine of them from an old nest in the inside of the 

 thatch of a hovel. In some parts, especially in E. Sussex, 

 it is thought unlucky to touch the nest. Strange as it may 

 appear, the Wren has been occasionally found on the light- 

 houses around the coast ; though I am told that, compared 

 with other birds, the appearance of the Wren at " lights " is 

 very rare. 



