THE WREN AND THE TROGLODYTE 185 



and briers with the vivacity of a lizard. When winter is 

 drawing near, this small birdling remains in the neigh- 

 bourhood of farms and orchards, ever singing merrily, in 

 spite of cold and in spite of snow. « It is never melan- 

 choly, says Belon; it is ever ready to sing; one is sure to 

 hear it at morn and at night from a distance, and gene- 

 rally in winter time, and its song then is scarcely less loud 

 than that of the nightingale. » 



The bird to which the troglodyte bears the closest 

 resemblance, in voice and in habits, is the small willow- 

 wren or pewet. The pewet is of the same size as the 

 wren ; it has also the same plumage, with the exception of 

 the crest ; but it has the habits and general bearing of the 

 troglodyte. Like the latter, it feeds on worms and flies, 

 which it pursues with astonishing vivacity. The female 

 lays generally five or six white eggs, with russet-coloured 

 spots. The young ones do not leave their mossy bed till 

 they are able to fly. In Autumn, the pewet imitates its 

 cousin the troglodyte ; it abandons the large forests and 

 begins to flutter near orchards. Its song consists of long 

 shrill notes, with varied modulations; it begins with a 

 sort of syncopated murmur ; then come some silvery 

 notes, clear and distinct ; lastly, a very sweet, sustained 

 warbling, which, especially in Autumn, finishes off in a 

 loud whistle: tuit! tuit! and which is like the character- 

 istic signature of this diminutive virtuoso. 



The golden-crested wren, on the contrary, scarcely 



