260 THE WREN 



drawn by old-fashioned country folk are often very 

 quaint. I remember an old lady who, if she were asked 

 to take more of some dish at table, often said, " Just a 

 bit the size of a bee's knee," to the great edification of 

 us youngsters. The song of the Wren is always the 

 same : a few separate notes, a trill, a rattle and a trill, 

 while its call-note has been likened to the clicking of a 

 watch while it is being wound up. There is no more 

 winsome picture of bird-life than this tiny creature 

 dotting about, with little tail erect and fan-like, in quest 

 of its insect food among the dry bramble leaves, so 

 vivacious in its movements that no camera could ever 

 do it justice. 



The Wren is almost the smallest of European birds. 

 There is not much to be said about the colouring of it's 

 feathers, which are the brown of the tree trunks, with 

 beautiful thick oblique stripes of a darker shade. The 

 colour is lighter over the eyes, on throat and breast. 

 The tail feathers are especially fine, and thickly striped. 

 The beak is slightly depressed, fine and sharp as a 

 needle; the brown legs relatively strong. The nest is 

 placed under the cover of felled boughs, between roots, 

 in secluded corners of abandoned huts, which it can slip 

 into. The nest is comparatively large, with a spacious 

 entrance, and consists of a foundation of leaves and fine 

 twigs, within which is a layer of moss, and again within 

 that a mass of smooth, finely broken feathers. The 

 clutch is six, sometimes, but rarely, eight small white 

 ?ggs, with fine blood-red speckles. 



