<T6 RIVERBY 



brood in the cradle of the first, were it not that by 

 seeking new lodgings time can be saved. The male 

 bird builds and furnishes the second nest, and the 

 mother bird has begun to lay in it before the first is 

 empty. 



The chatter of a second brood of nearly fledged 

 wrens is heard now (August 20) in an oriole's nest 

 suspended from the branch of an apple-tree near 

 where I write. Earlier in the season the parent 

 birds made long and determined attempts to estab- 

 lish themselves in a cavity that had been occupied 

 by a pair of bluebirds. The original proprietor of 

 the place was the downy woodpecker. He had 

 excavated it the autumn before, and had passed the 

 winter there, often to my certain knowledge lying 

 abed till nine o'clock in the morning. In the spring 

 he went elsewhere, probably with a female, to begin 

 the season in new quarters. The bluebirds early 

 took possession, and in June their first brood had 

 flown. The wrens had been hanging around, evi- 

 dently with an eye on the place (such little comedies 

 may be witnessed anywhere), and now very naturally 

 thought it was their turn. A day or two after the 

 young bluebirds had flown, I noticed some fine, dry 

 grass clinging to the entrance to the cavity; a cir- 

 cumstance which I understood a few moments later, 

 when the wren rushed by me into the cover of a 

 small Norway spruce, hotly pursued by the male 

 bluebird. It was a brown streak and a blue streak 

 pretty close together. The wrens had gone to house- 

 cleaning, and the bluebird had returned to find his 



