74 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



ing during the spring or the autumn the so- 

 called " spare nests" or " roosting-nests " which 

 are used during the greater part of the year for 

 sleeping-quarters by the adult birds. Unlike 

 the nests made for rearing the young, these 

 nests are ordinarily small, compact, scantily 

 lined, and built with much less care. In some 

 cases, however, the old brooding-nests are used 

 after being relined and generally reconstructed. 

 During the past autumn I noticed that a cock 

 wren was roosting in a spare nest built in a palo 

 verde tree below my house. During the winter 

 months he quite regularly went to roost at 

 about 4.30 o'clock. On one particular evening 

 in January an incident took place at the nest 

 which was so ludicrous that it needs to be given 

 record. 



The wren had nicely settled himself in the 

 nest for the night when a curious, impudent, 

 meddlesome shrike, or butcher bird, flew into 

 the tree, and, bent on plunder, poked his beak 

 into the private residence of the wren. Not 

 pleased with such intrusions, the waspish- 

 tempered wren flew into a rage, and before the 

 shrike was able to realize his precarious situa- 



