THE COMMON WREN. 47 



all adherents to the new faith. Any speculations would here be futile, though one cannot but be 

 struck with some coincidences. The Wren, in the first line of the Irish song, is called the ' king of 

 birds.' The Pembrokeshire ceremony was or is performed on Twelfth Day the feast of the three 

 kings and the bird was also spoken of as the king. The common name of the bird, shared to some 

 extent with the Golden-crested Wren, in. most European languages Basiliakos, Reyulus, Reyezuels, 

 Reations, Roitelet, Zaunkonig, Kungsfoyel, Ellekonye, Winterkoninkje, and so forth all assign to it 

 the kingly dignity. These names probably are connected with the old and well-known, fable of birds 

 choosing for their king that one of them which should mount highest in the air. This the Eagle seemed 

 to do, and all were ready to do him homage, when a loud burst of song was heard, and perched upon the 

 Eagle's head was the exultant Wren, which, unseen and unfelt, had been borne aloft by the giant. In 

 England this story does not seem to have had hold, and so far from ascribing royal qualities to our 

 little favourite, it is nearly everywhere known to us by the humbler name of ' Kitty ' or ' Jenny ' 

 Wren." 



Considering the size of the Wren, its song is remarkably loud, sweet, and sustained, and it is also 

 favourably regarded by every birds'-nester for its beautiful nest. The latter is placed in various 

 situations, being sometimes built into the thatch of a summer-house, or carefully inserted in some 

 trellis-work overhung by mosses, portions of which are grouped round the opening of the nest, in order 

 the more effectually to conceal it from view. It is also frequently built against the side of a tree, 

 especially if the ivy has been cut through and killed, when the bird will place its nest amidst a mass 

 of brown and decaying leaves, some of which are also employed to conceal the position of its home. 

 The following is a description* of a Wren's nest, as given by Macgillivray : " One brought me by my 

 son, which he found while gathering plants in a wood near Melville Castle, is of astonishing size 

 compared with that of its architect, its greatest diameter being seven inches, and its height five. It 

 presents the appearance of a rude mass of decayed vegetables, of an irregularly rounded form. Having 

 been placed on a flat surface under a bank, its base is of a corresponding form, and is composed of 

 layers of decayed ferns and other plants, mixed with twigs of herbaceous and woody vegetables. 

 Similar materials have been employed in raising the outer wall of the nest itself, of which the interior 

 is spherical and three inches in diameter. The wall is composed of mosses of several species, quite 

 fresh and green, and it is arched over with fern leaves and straws. The mosses are curiously inter- 

 woven with fibrous roots and hair of various animals, and the inner surface is even and compact, like 

 coarse felt. To the height of two inches there is a copious lining of large soft feathers, chiefly of the 

 Wood Pigeon, but also of the Pheasant and Domestic Duck, with a few of the Blackbird. The 

 aperture, which is in front and in the form of a low arch, two inches in breadth at the base, and an 

 inch and a half in height, has its lower edge formed of slender twigs, strong herbaceous stalks, and 

 stems of grasses, the rest being felted in the usual manner. This nest is a magazine of botany, there 

 entering into its composition leaves of Fagus sylvatica, fronds of Aspidium dilatatum and A. filix 

 mas, blades of Phalaris arundinacea, stems of several grasses and other herbaceous plants, some twigs 

 of the larch and other trees, and four or five species of Hypnum. It contained five eggs, of an 

 elongated oval form, averaging eight lines in length and six lines in breadth, pure white, with some 

 scattered dots of light red at the larger end, one of them with scarcely any, and another with a great 

 number. Of three nests presented to me by Mr. Weir, one is extremely beautiful, being composed 

 entirely of fresh green hypna, without any internal layer, although, no eggs having been found in it, 

 it possibly had not been completed. It is of an oblong form, seven inches in length, and four in its 

 transverse diameter. The mouth measures an inch and eight-twelfths across, one inch and a twelfth 

 in height. Its lower part is formed of small twigs of larch laid across and interwoven, so as to 

 present a firm pediment. The longitudinal diameter of the interior is three inches and a half. 

 Another, formed on a decayed tuft of Aim ccespitosa, is globular, six inches in diameter, and composed 

 of moss, with a lining of hair and feathers, chiefly of the domestic fowl. The third is globular, and 

 externally formed almost entirely of ferns like that described above. In all the nests of this species 

 which I have seen the lower part of the mouth was composed of twigs of trees or stems of herbaceous 

 plants, laid across, and kept together with moss and hair. The nests are found in a great variety of 

 situations : very often in a recess overhung by a bank, sometimes in a crevice among stones, in the 



* ' British Birds," Vol. III., p. 21. 



