Wren. 261 



and in Sweden it is in the same spirit called Tumme liden, or 

 * Little Thumb ;' indeed, generally its diminutive size, pert aspect, 

 and familiarity have bespoken its immunity from harm at the 

 hands of man ; but this has not always been the case. It was a 

 very old pastime with the Irish to hunt the Wren on New Year's 

 Day, following it with sticks and stones from hedge to hedge 

 until it was run down and destroyed ; and this sport (!), under 

 the name of ' toodling,' was very often practised at Eton in my 

 time, and in which, I am ashamed to say, I sometimes took part. 

 It originated from the legend of a wicked fairy having, when hard 

 pressed and on the point of destruction, escaped by taking the 

 form of a Wren, and being condemned to reanimate the same 

 form once a year, with the definite sentence that she must ulti- 

 mately perish by human hands * In consequence of this legend 

 the barbarous practice of hunting the Wren was year by year 

 vigorously kept up in Ireland, and doubtless introduced at Eton 

 in times long forgotten by some enthusiastic sons of the Emerald 

 Isle. 



One naturally is inclined to wonder how such small and ap- 

 parently delicate birds as this and the preceding brave the 

 seventy of our winters in this country, and yet, notwithstanding 

 the insect nature of their food and the slender form of their 

 beaks, they somehow manage to subsist, and the Wren at least 

 to warble in apparent gladness of heart during the roughest 

 winds and the bleakest weather. This is also essentially a rest- 

 less bird, always on the move and never stationary for a minute ; 

 it derives its scientific name Troglodytes from the cave-like ap- 

 pearance of the large domed nest which it inhabits (from r^y\^ 

 'a hole,' and M, 'I go into,' B.O.U.), and of which it is in the 

 habit of constructing several and leaving them half finished in 

 the neighbourhood of its real occupied nest. With what inten- 

 tion it follows this curious habit has never been satisfactorily 

 explained. Professor Newton says the general belief is that they 

 are built by the male bird for his own lodging at night, and are 

 called ' cocks' nests ' in consequence. Some suggest that they 

 * Dyer's ' English Folk-lore,' p. 68. 



