74 



APRIL. 



fence. None but the most hardened and grace- 

 less lads will rob a wren or a robin, for, says 

 their legend — 



Robinets and Jenny Wrens 



Are God Almighty's Cocks and Hens ; 



And it is likewise a tradition amongst them 

 that if you rob either of these the cows will 

 give bloody milk. On the banks too, or in the 

 outskirts of a thicket, or where some thorns 

 have been laid and the tall grass has grown up 

 amongst them, the little willow-wren builds an 

 oval nest after the fashion of the common wren 

 and the feather-poke, and lays a great number 

 of eggs in a mass of warm feathers. The eggs 

 of all these birds are much alike in colour ; of 

 a pale delicate bloom with red spots. The 

 white-throat builds in almost every wild rose- 

 bush a thin gauzy nest of the dry stalks of the 

 ladies'-bed-straw, or suspends it among the 

 fresh-growing nettles, and lays five eggs of a 

 tawny colour, brown-spotted. Under hollow 

 banks, amongst the " old fantastic roots " of 

 trees, especially overhanging a brook, the black- 

 bird delights to build its nest of dry bents, 

 daubed internally with mud, and lined with soft 

 dry grass. Its eggs, in common with those of 

 the rook, crow, and magpie, are pale sea-green, 

 and brown-spotted. In such situations the wren 

 too loves to build, and the thrush. But the 



