A Friendly Wren 



A Pupil's Experience 

 Mary Thimmesh 



I made a bird house and gave it two coats of white paint. While 

 the last coat of paint was drying, I saw a pair of wrens that were 

 going to make a nest in a coat pocket on the porch. I got my 

 bird house, nailed it on top of a post near the house and took the 

 coat away. 



About an hour later, they found the house and at once began 

 to carry sticks into it. 'They did not work very much through 

 the middle of the day, but towards evening they began again. 



The song of the wrens awakened me next morning and I went out 

 to watch them. A little later when I went out, the wrens were 

 not there, and upon looking around, I noticed the cat. I did not 

 see the wrens again and I think that the cat caught them or 

 scared them. The whole family liked the cat as much as the 

 birds, for she had been their pet for about seven years, therefore 

 they would not kill her. 



A few days later, another wren found my house and began to 

 carry sticks. He seems quite bold. One day one of the smaller 

 children crept up to the bird house and slowly stuck out his finger. 

 When he got close enough, the bird pecked it. Another time, 

 the bird sat on the little boy's head and pulled his hair. 



One day we thought we would feed him, so we put some bread- 

 crumbs on the platform of his house. He would eat a tiny bit 

 and then fly off with a big piece, which he dropped every time. 

 Then we thought we would try some ground corn, but he would 

 not eat it. 



It was a great deal of fun to watch him brush the corn from 

 the platform with his wings. 



We thought perhaps he would like flies, so we caught some and 

 put them in the palm of our hands and walked up to the bird 

 house. At first he hesitated, but it was not for long. Very soon 

 he came and sat on our hands and ate the flies as fast as he could. 



We also put some small sticks in our hands which he would 

 carry into his house, one at a time. 



One Sunday, just before we were going away, I fed him some 

 flies and he stayed on my hand for quite a while after he was 

 through. Then he flew onto my shoulder and began pecking at 

 some black beads which I wore. 



nil 



