92 EIVERBY 



sconce themselves in an old thrush's nest in the fall 

 and appear to amuse themselves like children, while 

 the wind made the branch sway to and fro. ) " Now 

 my wrens' nest is so situated that nothing can dis- 

 turb them, and where I can see it at any time. They 

 have often made a nest and left it. A year ago, 

 during the latter part of May, they built a nest, and 

 in a few days they kicked everything out of the box 

 and did the work all over again, repeating the opera- 

 tion all July, then left the country without accom- 

 plishing anything further. This season they reared 

 one brood, built another nest, and, I think, laid one 

 or more eggs, idled around a few weeks, and then 

 went away. " (This last was probably a " cock-nest, " 

 built by the male as a roosting- place.) "I have 

 noticed, too, that blue jays build their apology for a 

 nest, and abandon it for another place in the same 

 tree." Her jays and wrens do not live together on 

 the most amicable terms. "I had much amusement 

 while the jay was on the nest, watching the actions 

 of the wrens, whose nest was under the porch close 

 by the oak. Perched on a limb over the jay, the 

 male wren sat flirting his tail and scolding, evi- 

 dently saying all the insulting things he could think 

 of; for, after enduring it for some time, the jay 

 would fly off its nest in a rage, and, with the evi- 

 dent intention of impaling Mr. Wren with his bill, 

 strike down vengefully and — find his bill fast in 

 the bark, while his enemy was somewhere else, 

 squeaking in derision. They kept that up day after 

 day; but the wren is too lively to be caught by a 

 large bird. 



