226 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



had perched on the house and begun his songs; soon after his 

 mate made her appearance, and the twain commenced their recog- 

 nizance of their intended dwelling; they walked over it, flew 

 about it, went inside, came out, passed through the air holes, and 

 never did man and wife go a house-hunting with half the assi- 

 duity and care that pair of birds did; they inspected, then 

 passed to and fro, and around and over and through their dwell- 

 ing a half dozen times at least, then, after a consultation for a 

 few minutes, I saw the cockerel fly down into the yard near the 

 house, seize a bunch of weeds, broke twigs off, flew directly up on 

 to the platform with twigs in his beak; here an unexpected diflSL- 

 culty occurred, the twigs were five times longer than the width 

 of the door where he entered into his house, but he overcame it; 

 he slid his beak along the bunch to near the end, then he dragged 

 his twigs into the house end ways; this was the first beam laid 

 for his nest. In the course of the day he must have carried up 

 into the house hundreds of twigs. 



The she wren was seen conveying feathers and hair into her 

 house to complete the nest. 



These birds staid about their house until the last of August, 

 say about eighty days. 



The first brood of young ones came off in twenty to twenty- 

 eight days, they were five in number; the second brood came off 

 in June, three in number; and the third brood came off in August, 

 two in number; making ten young ones hatched and reared by 

 the two old ones in one season. All day long the cockerel would 

 sit on the house and sing, and alternately carry up worms, crickets, 

 flies, moths and worms and seeds into the house for his partner, 

 while sitting and hatching the eggs, and to feed the young birds. 



Never did Napoleon ride prouder before his armies, than the 

 old cockerel did when the broods of young ones came off; he saw 

 them safely landed in a thicket, on a cherry tree, every night, 

 until they became able to fly and take care of themselves, which 

 they did in less than ten days. I can say that many baskets of 

 bugs, worms, moths, and food of this kind, were carried up into 

 the nest during the three hatchings of the young wrens. 



These were complete scavengers for all the yards and gardens 

 in the vicinity. They seemed to have cleared out all the vermin 



