TWELVE WINTER BIEDS. 279 



offers a snug retreat. Often it is arched over at the 

 top, the entrance being at one side and only large 

 enough to admit the builder. The eggs are five to 

 seven in number, reddish-white, thickly spotted with 

 various shades of brown, and measure .73x.60 of an 

 inch. There are two, sometimes three, broods each 

 season, but many of the young fall a prey to carnivo- 

 rous snakes, weasels and small owls. 



In winter the sexes separate; each pre-empts for 

 itself a certain territory as a forage field, and woe 

 betide any feathered form of moderate size which 

 ventures upon its chosen domain. As Dr. Abbott has 

 well said : " The tenants of the wild woods know the 

 wrens full well and usually give them a wide berth. 

 They realize that they are petty tyrants, suffering no 

 intrusion and excusing no blunders ; particularly so 

 when something has gone wrong with them ; then it 

 is a word and a blow, and the blow first. Even the 

 hornets stand back when there is a riot in wrendom." 



Thus the winter days of our wren are spent in 

 spider hunting, fighting and singing; for besides the 

 spring call and. scolding chirps mentioned above, he 

 has many other notes, some of which are as varied 

 and pleasing as those of the brown thrush. The 

 nights are passed in hollow rail or limb of tree, and 

 when the face of earth is clad in snow and ice prob- 

 ably the major part of many a day is spent there too, 

 in fasting and musing if a bird can muse o'er the 

 victories won in the past and the battles to be fought 

 in the future. 



*** 



Wishing to reward the one I had seen with a 



