133 



WHEN. 



COMMON WEEN. KITTY WEEN. JIMPO. 



Sylvia troglodytes, PENNANT. 



MotacUla troglodytes, MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



Troglodytes vulgaris, TEMMINCK. 



" europaus, CUVIEK. 



Sylvia. Sylva A wood. Troglodytes The name of an 



ancient race ^of people, said to live in holes and caves. 



KICHAED DOWDEN, ESQ., Mayor of Cork in the year 1845, 

 will doubtless be rather surprised at seeing, if, which is perhaps 

 rather problematical, he ever should see, his name at the head 

 of an article in this 'History of British Birds,' but I place it 

 there to do him all due honour for having issued a proclamation 

 during his mayoralty to forbid, on the score of cruelty, the 

 hunting of this little bird on St. Stephen's Day by all the 

 idle fellows of the country. There are different traditions as 

 to the origin of this absurd custom, one dating from the 

 time of the incursions of the Danes, when it is said that a 

 Wren perched on a drum, and there sang so loud as to awaken 

 the enemy, who would otherwise have been slaughtered in 

 their sleep; and the other from such a recent date as the 

 reign of William III., when it is said that the noise of Wrens 

 picking up the crumbs on a drum-head, in like manner saved 

 his army from being cut off early in the morning by James 

 II.; the result being to make these birds ever since objects 

 of detestation to the Jacobites, and of favour with the 

 Orangemen. It is however manifest that these traditions 

 cannot both be true, and I shall therefore take the liberty 

 of not believing either of them. Suffice it to say that on 

 the Saint's day in question, the 'Wren Boys' go about the 

 hedges pelting the unfortunate victim with sticks and stones, 



