THE WREN 



THE WREN 

 [E. L. TURNER] 



The common wren has three principal characteristics a mania for 

 house building, aggressive impudence, and an enormous voice greatly 

 disproportionate to the small size of the bird. 



Scarcely one out of the half-dozen nests you may come across in 

 an April morning's walk ever contain eggs. The wren seems to 

 build from sheer love of the work, or because it must ; and exquisite 

 work this master-builder turns out. The nest is generally in complete 

 harmony with its surroundings, although the wren is as fond of variety 

 in the matter of building sites as the robin. 



" And when for their abodes they seek 



An opportune recess, 

 The Hermit has no finer eye 

 For shadowy quietness." 1 



There is no scamped work, no jerry-building; every leaf and 

 twig composing " This moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry," is care- 

 fully selected, and so woven into the structure that it serves a triple 

 purpose being useful, decorative, and protective. The work is per- 

 fect of its kind, harmonious and enduring, like that of the old 

 cathedral builders. Two years in succession a pair of wrens chose for 

 their abode a coil of rope which hung from a beam in an old barn. 

 In this instance they showed their usual adaptation to environment, 

 for the nest was entirely composed of fine wisps of hay, which exactly 

 matched the rope in colour. These two nests I photographed. 2 



There is a common idea afloat, but one which has never been 

 " well proven," that the unlined nests, those which are not used for 

 incubation, are built by the cock birds for their own special comfort 



1 Wordsworth. - See the photograph oil PI. xi. 



