WESTERN HOUSE WREN 225 



first sight but I was disappointed for days by the disap- 

 pearance of the female, and I assure you the male 's lone- 

 liness was truly pathetic to behold as he sat perched first 

 near one nest, and then another, anxiously watching and 

 persistently singing for hours each day. Then one fine 

 day the female returned and when I saw her carrying 

 soft cottony pieces of nest-building material into the new 

 box, I knew that the little lover had won his mate. 



English Sparrows now gave this threshold a wide 

 berth. The premises were posted, "No trespassers al- 

 lowed. ' ' 



Why the male builds more than one nest before the 

 arrival of the female is, in my opinion, explained by his 

 desire to monopolize the building-places and by the ab- 

 sence of the female in the early stages of the nest build- 

 ing, since her decision, apparently, is final. Then it 

 may be that his nest-building instinct is not satisfied until 

 one of his efforts is approved by the female. I noticed 

 that he repeatedly visited and protected the duplicate 

 nests for weeks after the female made her selection. 

 (Fig. 134.) 



In the artistically constructed Wren box of one of 

 my friends there were seven nearly full-grown young 

 birds. This box was about five feet from the ground in 

 an arbor of blooming Dorothy Perkins roses, through 

 which a black snake four feet long climbed and entered 

 the box and devoured the young Wrens. Its greed was 

 its downfall, however, since it could, with all its efforts, 

 get only about twelve inches of its gluttonous body out 

 of the box. In that position it was discovered and quickly 

 dispatched. 



