COMMON WREN. 371 



same hole, and thus keeping up the tempera- 

 ture, and increasing their defence against the 

 cold of winter. The holes in the eaves where 

 sparrows have nestled are very frequently resorted 

 to ; and in a frosty winter's evening, eight or nine 

 Wrens may be seen entering one of these retreats, 

 hanging about the thatch, and clinging to the 

 wall, before going to rest ; when all is quiet, and 

 they have taken their places, the hand and arm 

 introduced into the hole, will find them huddled 

 together almost in a mass, surrounded by the 

 feathers which the industry of the sparrows had 

 collected in spring; and the degree of heat which 

 is thus kept up is much greater than at first we 

 would conceive that their small bulk could main- 

 tain. 



Over each eye there is a pale streak; the 

 whole upper parts of the body are of a dull 

 chestnut brown, of a redder tint on the tail 

 coverts and rump, the whole indistinctly marked 

 with bars of a darker shade ; the under parts are 

 pale wood brown ; the wings are of a deeper 

 shade th#n the back and upper parts, and are 

 barred with black ; the tail somewhat similar in 

 tint to its coverts, and barred with 'brownish 

 black. The female does not differ, but is gene- 

 rally somewhat less in size. 



Before leaving the tribe of Scansores, we have 

 still another family to review shortly, that of the 

 Cuculidce> or Cuckoos, of which, until lately, we 

 possessed only a single example in the wel/ 



