238 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



In spring his love song sounds through the forest glades 

 and hedgerows, as the buds are expanding into foliage 

 and his mate is seeking a site for her cave-like home. 

 And what a series of jerks and modulations it is com- 

 posed of, and how abruptly he finishes his song, as if 

 suddenly alarmed : but this is his peculiar habit, and 

 common to him alone. In summer we hear his sonsr 



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given forth for very joyfulness both morning, noon, and 

 night, as he wanders hither and thither in his leafy 

 bower. But a month previous to the autumnal equinox 

 a change occurs, and we hear him sing with failing 

 energy and in rapidly decreasing numbers : the moulting 

 season has arrived. In the middle of September he has 

 regained his lost notes, and as the mellow days of 

 autumn gild the waning year his song assumes all its 

 wild and varied beauty. When the noble trees are al- 

 most divested of their leafy covering, and the cold 

 western winds bring down the frost-bitten leaves in 

 showers, he still sings on. When you see him fly you 

 sometimes take him for a swirling leaf, but are soon un- 

 deceived as he pours forth his sweet and varied notes 

 notes so loud as to fill you with wonderment when you 

 see from what a little feathered casket they fall. In 

 winter, undaunted by the shrieking blasts and ice-covered 

 branches, his song is heard, clear as the morning star, 

 and sweet as at the summer solstice. 



Two of the Wren's chief characteristics are its ever- 

 elevated tail, borne more erect than that of any other bird, 

 and its never-ceasing activity, for seldom indeed is the 

 Wren seen sitting motionless for two minutes together. 

 See him hopping through the tangled fences, his course 

 marked by the trembling branches. Now he pauses for 

 a moment in the open, to take a peep at you. Notice 

 how he stretches up to his full height, with his tail erect, 



