114 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



NUTHATCH B. Rather local in its distribution, but 

 Sitta casia. numerous in certain places (for ex- 



ample in the Quarry, Shrewsbury, 

 where it breeds every year). It is most easily seen in 

 winter when the trees are bare of leaves. It nests in 

 holes in trees, and plasters up the entrance with a very 

 hard clay, leaving only a small opening. It runs upwards 

 or downwards, or over or under branches, with equal 

 facility, and, as it rarely flies, except from one tree to the 

 next, it looks more like a mouse than a bird. 



WREN B. Provincial name, Jenny Wren. A pretty but 

 Troglodytes parvulus. shy little bird , with a wonderfully power- 

 ful and sweet song, often heard in 

 winter. It frequently builds more than one nest, the 

 extra ones being used by the cock or young to roost in. 

 The hen will desert on very slight provocation (if anyone 

 even looks at the nest), unless the eggs are near hatching 

 or there are young in the nest. The Wren shares with 

 the Robin the benefit of a local superstition, expressed 

 in the following lines: 



"The Robin and the Wren 



Are God's cock and hen." 



and 

 *' Whoever kills a Robin or Wren, 



Shall never see his mother again." 

 On a stormy winter night, Mr. Buddicom once found the 

 leeward side of his house, at Tickler ton, literally covered 

 with wrens, apparently sheltering from the bitterly cold 

 wind. Mr. Ruddy relates a curious story of a Wren, at 

 Pale, Corwen : She had built a nest close to the path- 

 way, and some workmen, passing along several times a 

 day, used to stop and look into the nest ; Apparently 



