How Animals Work. 



grasses ; but it can generally be distinguished from 

 that of the Willow Wren by its much larger entrance, 

 and by its generally being built well off the ground 

 in brambles and in mixed herbage. The true Wren is 

 another feathered architect which delights in construct- 

 ing a dome nest. Very varied are the sites selected by, 

 the little bird for the building of its nest such as in 

 the midst of a dense growth of ivy, an old creeper-clad 

 wall or tree, in the shelter of a hole in a thatched roof, 

 under the shelter of the overhanging turf and roots 

 near the top of a steep bank, or in a tangle of brambles 

 and dead bracken fern in an open woodland glade. 

 When the latter situation is selected, the nest is by no 

 means easily detected ; for the bird will utilize the dead 

 stems of the ferns as a natural framework, weaving 

 the branches together most cleverly. The nest is a 

 fairly compact structure, round or oval in shape, with 

 the entrance hole in the side, moss and dead leaves 

 being used chiefly in its construction ; while feathers, 

 fern, moss, and pieces of dry leaves are all worked up 

 together to form a soft lining. 



There is one particular point of interest about the 

 Wren on the exact significance of which I believe 

 ornithologists are still by no means agreed, and that 

 is its curious habit of partially building several nests 

 before constructing the one intended for the reception 

 and incubation of the eggs. They certainly do not 

 appear to be ordinary nests that have been abandoned 

 half-way*in their construction, for they are very rarely 

 used as the foundation of a true nest, but are consid- 

 ered by some authorities to be nest-like structures 

 built for the purpose of courtship, like the wonderful 



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