356 THE COMMON WREN. 



ing that his nest is somewhere in that structure, I hide awa} 

 and watch. In a few moments he flits down and drops into ; 

 rather loose mortise-joint, where a brace enters a post. The 

 entrance is very small, but there is quite a space inside 

 Having examined any considerable number of nests, one 

 can conceive the contents and arrangement of such a cavit} 

 without access to it. However large the space, it will b< 

 well filled up with rough, crooked twigs, leaving a bristling 

 and irregular passage barely large enough to admit thetinji 

 occupant, which passage leads to the nest, ensconced awa/ 

 in the remotest corner. The nest proper is composed o* 

 dried grasses well laid, and is well lined with hair anr2 

 feathers. The variety of cavities appropriated for a net f 

 by this pertinacious little bird is beyond account the bird- 

 box, the holes about the house-cornice, a hole in a post c V 

 in an old apple-tree, the mud dwelling of the Eave Swallov - 

 the inside of a log-pump, the pocket or sleeve of an ol<f 

 coat hanging in an out-building, an old hat with rentcrowrs 

 stuck up against the wall, the brain-cavity of a horse's skul- 

 mounted on a stake in short, any cavity into which sum's 

 cient material of the proper kind can be stowed and arranged 

 for a breeding tenement. A nest once found in the clothes^ 

 line box of Professor Ware, of Cambridge, Massachusetts 

 and which has attained classic fame, filled a space " consi^ 

 erably more than a foot square," and consisted of "the exuvi - 

 of a snake several feet in length, large twigs, pieces of Indi^ 

 rubber suspenders, oak leaves, feathers, pieces of shaving;S 

 hair, hay, etc., etc." ? 



With what boldness and pugnacity this Wren will driv: 

 the gentle Bluebird, or the large Black Martin from his bo/1 

 how he will dislodge the Eave Swallow from his jug-nose^ 

 tenement; thus taking possession of the rightful home '- 

 another, on which he has no claim whatever; and how 



