THE WREN. 269 



MR. SWEET'S ACCOUNT OP THE SEDGE BIRD. 



In habit and manner the present species approaches to the 

 former, but is a much handsomer bird ; though not so rare, it 

 frequents the sides of ditches, ponds, and rivers, like the last 

 species, where it pours forth its variable diurnal and nocturnal 

 song almost incessantly, on its first arrival in this country, 

 which is generally the beginning of April, leaving us again 

 about the middle of September. It builds its nest in a thicket 

 of reeds, or other tall water-grass, on which it is fastened up 

 with the webs of caterpillars, similar to that of the former, 

 which is fastened to the branches of trees, so that no wind or 

 storm can move it. 



The song of the present species is somewhat similar to that 

 of the last, but is more shrill and chattering; some people 

 prefer it to that of the latter species, but I do not, as it wants 

 some fine deep notes that the other possesses: it is also an 

 imitative bird, its song being intermixed with the call of the 

 sparrow and parts of the songs of other birds. Its food is 

 precisely the same as that of the last species ; and in confine- 

 ment the treatment for both must be exactly alike. 



THE WREN. 



Motacilla Troglodytes, LINN.EUS ; Le Roitelet, ou Trog odite, BUPFON ; Dor 

 ZaunkOnig, BECHSTEIN. 



THIS, except the rufous chiff-chaff and the gold-crested wren, 

 is the smallest bird of our climate. It is only three inches 

 and a half in length, of which the tail measures one and a 

 half. The beak is five lines, rather curved at the point, dusky 

 above, yellowish white below, and yellow within ; the iris is 

 hazel brown ; the shanks are seven lines high, and greyish 

 brown ; the upper part of the body is dusky rust brown, with 

 indistinct dark brown streaks across. 



