J)^ NATURAL HISTORY 



My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a 

 clatter with his bill against a dead bough, or some old 



especially as it performs a series of migrations in search of cherries, 

 advancing northward when the supply fails in the south, and returning 

 to eat the early pears and elder berries when the northern cherries are 

 consumed, it is quite certain that the bird must be found in similar 

 situations in France ; and wherever the gardens are by which Paris is 

 supplied, its nest will be discovered. If it visits the forests at all, it is 

 probably to attack the cherry trees of the cottagers. 



I could not persuade my gardener that the yellow wrens did not eat 

 the cherries, till he had shot some of the pettychaps in the act of eating 

 them, and compared them with the wrens, when he became satisfied of 

 the error. In order to ascertain, beyond doubt, whether the yellow wrens 

 ever eat fruit, I left some which had been reared tame from the nest, 

 and of course were more likely to feed upon any new thing than the wild 

 birds, without victuals, till they were very hungry, and I then offered 

 them little bits of ripe cherry. They seized them with avidity, but imme- 

 diately threw them down again, and it was evident that they would rather 

 have starved than eat the fruit. I had no doubt of the fact, but I wished 

 to set the question completely at rest, for I have seen them pulling the 

 leaves of the cherry trees so near the fruit that any person might be 

 deceived, and think they were eating it, and the young of the pettychaps 

 look so like them, that I am not in the least surprised at their having got 

 into bad repute with the gardeners. I had an opportunity of watching 

 lately a little family of them, which sat many days in a low standard 

 cherry tree in my garden, not more than a few feet above my head. The 

 old ones took no notice of me at all, but were perpetually feeding them 

 close to me. They flitted about the cherry tree, picking the little Aphides 

 off the leaves and bringing them one by one to the young, and sometimes 

 tugging very hard at a leaf to get out a little caterpillar that was twisted 

 up in it, the cherries being ripe at the time. The young sat still for hours 

 together, close to each other, occasionally stretching their legs or wings, 

 or hunching up their hind quarters. This very singular movement is, I 

 think, peculiar to, or at least it is more usual amongst, soft-billed birds. 

 It is a sign of health, and is frequent with the growing young birds. I 

 do not observe those which feed upon seed use it, though they frequently 

 stretch the leg or wing. The young sedge warblers hunch up their hind 

 quarters to a degree that is singularly ridiculous, and when they do so 

 they are always thriving. 



The yellow wrens appear in confinement to have stronger powers of 

 digestion than the wood wrens, though, I believe, they feed naturally 

 upon similar insects. The hens are singularly tame. I had one taken 

 when able to feed itself, what the bird-catchers call a brancher, which 

 soon became so familiar that it would fly upon my finger to feed. The 

 cocks are larger and rather more shy. 



Last year I had reared three cocks from the nest, and in July I wished 

 to set one of them at liberty. Having let it out of the cage which stood 

 near a window which was opened, it continued for a long time hopping 



