WREN. 95 
between the eggs of the Creeper, which number from six to nine, 
and those of the Blue Tit-mouse and the Willow-wren, not to 
mention one or two other small birds. The illustration will give 
a better idea of the egg than many lines of description.—Fig. 16, 
plate IV. 
131. WREN—(Zroglodytes vulgaris). 
Jenny Wren, Kitty Wren, Titty Wren, Cutty Wren —A kind 
of natural pet with every one. I scarcely ever remember to 
have spoken of the Wren, or heard others speak of it, without some 
gentle, loving epithet applied to its name. The provincial names 
quoted are instances of what I mean, and how often the words 
“poor,” “little,” “tiny,” and even “dear,” are jomed to the 
prefixes of Jenny, or Kitty, or Titty. Its little song, its seeming 
incapacity to bear the rude buffets of storm and cold, its quiet 
peculiar movements, all tend to commend it to our kindly notice. 
And then the beautiful nest it makes—such a great pile for such 
a tiny builder—and so compact and warm and wonderfully 
concealed by the use of the nicest adaptations of materials and 
design to the site selected,—this makes us almost respectfully 
admire, in addition to our love. I have found it on the moss- 
covered bank, on the moss-covered trunk of a tree, in thatch, in 
a haulm wall; but wherever it is found, the adjacent substances 
are made to help the concealment. One would think that when 
strength and ability, seemingly so inadequate, had been so 
heavily tasked as is implied in the construction of such a nest, 
the little birds would not be likely to leave it, especially with the 
building of another in immediate prospect. But I have not 
found it so in practice. A very trifling enlargement of the 
single orifice, or straining of the fabric, in the effort to send the 
finger to the bottom of the nest, is quite sufficient to cause the 
nest to be deserted; especially if the Wrens owning it have 
