THE WREN. 331 



wren sometimes builds under the eaves of thatched houses, it 

 never does so if there are plantations near, thick with under- 

 wood and soft with moss ; and both come close to the dwelling 

 of man in the winter, though the redbreast, which is by far 

 the most familiar at that season, retires to the greatest distance 

 in the summer. Thus the redbreast so far partakes of the 

 character of the warblers (with which it is often associated), 

 that is, more of a woodland and a migratory bird, only it 

 does not emigrate from the country, or appear much to 

 change its latitude, with the seasons. 



As both of this species sing very sweetly, though not loud, 

 and very early, when there are few other notes, and some- 

 times when the frozen earth rings back again even to their 

 small voices, they are among the most delightful of our little 

 birds, especially in those parts of the country to which the 

 summer warblers come sparingly, or not at all. The golden- 

 crested wren, which is more a " bark bird " than the others, 

 does not with us so often leave its native forests, or seek the 

 shelter and subsistence that are found near the dwellings of 

 men ; but as it is without that habit as a resource, it 

 migrates to greater distances, and far more completely during 

 very violent storms. 



Violent storms, indeed, often carry to great distances and 

 in vast numbers, birds, which in ordinary seasons can hardly 

 be said to migrate, and that is perhaps more the case with 

 the dwellers in the northern forests. In those cases they are 

 literally driven southward or obliquely, as the wind may set; 

 and not only that, but as the wind often changes from the 

 northern to the southern half of the horizon in the course of 

 a winter storm, especially one on the eastern coast of Britain, 

 and when it comes near to the middle latitude, by the cold 

 air from Holland and the northern part of Belgium, "taking 

 the Norwain blast in its wane," the birds are often caught, 

 exhausted in the eddy, and whelmed in the sea, or cast* 



