FIELD AND STUDY 



disappeared down the hill, where she had a nest on a 

 rafter in the lower fruit-house. 



This season there are four wrens' nests about my 

 place, in hollow limbs and boxes which we have put 

 up, and three bluebirds' nests. The wrens and the 

 bluebirds often come into collision; mainly, I think, 

 because they are rivals for the same nesting-sites. 

 The bluebird, with all his soft, plaintive notes, has a 

 marked vein of pugnacity in him, and is at times 

 a lively "scrapper"; and the wren is no "peace-at- 

 any-price bird, and will stand up for his rights very 

 bravely against his big blue-coated rival. 



Late one afternoon, when I was busy in the gar- 

 den near the end of the vineyard, where there was a 

 bird-box, I suddenly heard the loud, emphatic note 

 of a bluebird mingled with the chiding cackle and 

 chatter of a house wren. I saw the bluebird dive 

 savagely at the wren and drive him into a currant- 

 bush, where he would scold and "sass back," and 

 then break out into a shrill, brief song. Presently a 

 female oriole came and joined the bluebird in per- 

 secuting the wren, which answered back from its 

 safe retreat in the bushes with harsh chatter and 

 snatches of tantalizing song. The bluebird took up 

 his stand on the grape-post that supported the bird- 

 box in which the wren had a nest, and from this 

 outlook he grew eloquent in his denunciation of 

 wrens. His loud, rapid voice and the answering 

 cackle of the wren attracted the attention of their 

 80 



