240 NATURAL HISTORY. 



it a privilege for which it is difficult to give a reason, except, 

 perhaps, the very incomprehensible assertion that " The robin 

 and the wren are God Almighty's cock and hen ;" although 

 why these two birds, both proverbially quarrelsome and pug- 

 nacious, should be selected, to the exclusion of others, is diffi- 

 cult to say. Perhaps the robin enjoys his immunity from the 

 " Babes in the Wood," and the wren makes a convenient rhyme. 

 Be this as it may, it is to be wished that a similar rhyme ex- 

 isted, including the owl and the kestrel. 



A singular anecdote is related of this bird. 



"In the end of June, 1835, a person was shooting in the 

 neighbourhood of Bandrakehead, in the parish of Colton, West- 

 moreland : he killed a brace of blue titmice (Parus cceruleus), 

 which some time before had been observed to be constructing a 

 nest, in the end of a house belonging to a Mr. Innes of the same 

 place. In the course of the day, it was ascertained that the 

 titmice had completed the time of incubation, and that their 

 death had consequently left their offspring in a state of utter 

 destitution. This, however, was not long permitted to continue, 

 for the chirping of the young birds attracted the attention, and 

 excited the compassion of a wren ; which, since that period, 

 adopted the nestlings, and was daily engaged in rearing and 

 feeding them, with the affectionate kindness and unremitting 

 assiduity of a parent bird." 



The nest of the Wren is built in any convenient cranny ; an 

 ivy-covered tree, the' thatch of a barn, or a warm scarecrow, 

 are all used by this fearless little bird. The nest is usually of 

 an oven-like shape, always covered on the outside with some 

 material resembling the colour of the objects round it, such as 

 green moss if built among ivy, or brown lichen if built on a 

 rock or in the fork of a withered branch. The eggs are six or 

 eight in number white, speckled with reddish brown. 



