318 TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 



coming down I walked around the tree and dis- 

 covered a hole, and upon looking in saw a nest 

 of sleeping featherless wrens. At no time 

 while I was in the vicinity had the wren vis- 

 ited these little ones." 



Of all our birds, the wren seems the most 

 overflowing with life and activity. Probably 

 in this instance it had stuffed its own young to 

 repletion, when its own activity bubbled over 

 into the nest of its neighbor. It is well known 

 that the male wren frequently builds what are 

 called " cock-nests. " It is simply so full of life 

 and joy and of the propagating instinct, that 

 after the real nest is completed, and while the 

 eggs are being laid, it gives vent to itself in 

 constructing these sham, or cock-nests. I have 

 found the nest of the marsh-wren surrounded 

 by half a dozen or more of these make-believers. 

 The gushing ecstatic nature of the bird ex- 

 presses itself in this way. 



I have myself known but one instance of a 

 bird lending a hand in feeding young not its 

 own. This instance is to be set down to the 

 credit of a female English sparrow. A little 

 "chippie " had on her hands the task of supply- 

 ing the wants of that horse-leech, young cow- 

 bunting. The sparrow looked on from its perch 

 a few yards away, and when the chippie was off 

 looking up food, it would now and then bring 

 something and place it in the beak of the clam- 

 orous bunting. I think the "chippie" appre- 

 ciated its good offices. Certainly its dusky 

 foster-child did. This bird, when young, seems 



