WREN. 117 



put tog-ether, especially about and below the orifice, 

 which is strengthened with small twigs or moss, and is 

 in the upper half and nearly closed by the feathers 

 inside. It is in thickness about one inch to two inches, 

 and about three inches wide within by about four in 

 depth, and outside about five wide by six deep. At 

 times they are found on the ground and also in banks, 

 as well as against trees, even so high up as twenty 

 feet, also under the eaves of the thatch of a building, 

 in holes in walls, the sides of stacks, among piles of 

 wood or faggots, or the bare roots of trees, and under 

 the projection at the top of the bank of a river; one 

 has been known to be placed in an old bonnet fixed 

 up among some peas to frighten the birds, and one 

 close to a constant thoroughfare. Mr. Hewitson men- 

 tions one built against a clover stack, and formed 

 entirely of clover, and so becoming part of the stack 

 itself. 



Other situations for nests are the tops of honey- 

 suckle and raspberry bushes, in the latter case the nest 

 being made of the leaves of the tree; in fir trees, trellis- 

 work, granaries, the branches of wall-fruit trees, and 

 lofts, use being made occasionally of the holes pre- 

 viously tenanted by Sparrows and Starlings. One has 

 been known built withinside that of a Swallow, and 

 another in the old nest of a Thrush: one, again, in 

 the newly-finished nest of a Martin, another on a branch 

 of a yew tree among the foliage, and another in one 

 of the hatches in the river at Winchester. Mr. Jesse 

 relates a curious anecdote of a Wren's nest, the owner 

 of which being disturbed by some children watching it, 

 blocked up the original entrance, and opened out a 

 new one on the other side. In the garden of Nun- 

 burnholme Rectory one was built, in 1854, in the middle 



