THE WREN. 97 



spot, making short, weak flights, or hopping about 

 with drooping wings and raised tail, making a low 

 chirring sound. If alarmed by our near or sudden 

 approach, it winds its way most ingeniously through 

 the hedges or bushes, and again we see it at 

 a short distance a minute afterwards, flying off a 

 little farther, and creeping away from us as a 

 mouse might do. Though it does not come with 

 the robin to peck its meal from the window-sill, 

 or around the breakfast table, it ventures into the 

 farm-yards and gardens for what it may chance 

 to find, though doubtless in severe seasons many 

 wrens die of hunger. Treat our little jenny- wren 

 but gently, however, and do not alarm it by a 

 rash footstep, and it will love your company, and 

 flutter for some paces before you, as if it intended 

 to show you the way, seeming all the time to 

 mark you with a most inquisitive look, as appa- 

 rently not only observing your actions, but even 

 scanning your physiognomy. 



The wren builds early in spring, generally about 

 March, placing its nest against the side of a tree, 

 a hay-rick, the wall of a house, or some other 

 sheltered spot ; and it often shows much sagacity 

 by making it to correspond in colour with the object 

 H 



