290 THE WREN 



during the breeding season. Now the luxurious nature is seldom 

 energetic : it loves comfort and ease, but others must provide them ! 

 For the head of a family to build himself a home wherein he may 

 take refuge from domestic cares and curtain lectures betokens a 

 luxurious disposition of the most virulent type ; whereas every atom 

 that goes to make up the tiny wren is replete with energy and life. 



It is a well-established fact that unlined nests are sometimes used 

 as a bedroom during the autumn and winter by several wrens 

 together ; and not by them only. Late one winter afternoon, seeing 

 a wren's nest in an excellent state of repair under an overhanging 

 bank, I went close up to inspect it, and was a little astonished when 

 five long-tailed tits flew out almost into my face. "The problem is 

 solved," I said to myself; "Nature's darkling of the mossy shed j ' has 

 an eye to business, and turns house agent during the winter ! The 

 house agent himself sometimes goes into humbler quarters. Ten or 

 twelve have been caught roosting in a hole in the side of a building, 

 others have been found in holes in trees and haystacks, also in ivy. 1 



The unlined nests are certainly used, at least occasionally, 

 by the brood on quitting the lined nest. They may remain in 

 it a few days, being fed by the parents, and continue to use it 

 as a roosting-place for some time, until they disperse. But, on 

 the other hand, the breeding-nest has also been known to be used as 

 a dormitory by the young for several weeks after they quit the nest. 

 What is not commonly known is the fact that the unlined nests, after 

 remaining unoccupied for a month or six weeks, may not infrequently 

 be lined and used for breeding purposes. In one case a nest was left 

 untouched for seven weeks after completion, eggs were then laid in it, 

 and this nest was again used in the following season. 2 



Lastly, the unlined nest may be used merely as a daily place of 



1 Zoologist, 1844, p. 564 ; British Birds, ii. p. 119. 



* J. Whitaker, Notes on the Birds of Notts, p. 55, quoted in British Birds, iv. 92. For 

 further evidence of unlined nests being subsequently lined and used for breeding, see the Field, 

 June 25 (p. 1112) and July 2 (p. 52) 1910, which show also incidentally that the "cock's nest" may 

 be built while the hen is incubating in the lined nest. 



