138 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



February or early March, when it is changed to grey for a season 

 more or less prolonged. With the older males there seems to 

 be no regular time for recovering their blues and blacks, as 

 individuals can be found moulting the grey from the middle of 

 April to the end of September. This season seems favourable 

 to an early recovery of their blue dress, as at this time (June, 

 1899) there are more coloured wrens than I have seen for 

 many years. In August the family is disbanded, the males 

 attacking and driving away the younger members of their sex, 

 and the old females doing the same, though at a slightly later 

 period. Another token of the approach of the breeding season 

 is the intense pugnacity of the mated males. From the time 

 the young are driven off until long after the next brood is out 

 all trespassing wrens of either sex are persecuted. In my 

 garden a male wren proved a great nuisance. It was im- 

 possible to give my caged wren the benefit of air and shade 

 outside, so I was obliged to keep it indoors, and cover the 

 windows with fine wire netting, so as to protect the caged bird 

 from the incessant attacks of the free bird. Should I have 

 happened to have left the door open, and to be looking into the 

 cage to see how the changes of plumage were progressing, the 

 tormentor was sure to fly past my head and hang on to the wire 

 of the cage till driven away, though constant chasing seemed to 

 make no difference. It never missed an opportunity for an 

 attack, and its own nest being situated in a gooseberry bush just 

 opposite the door, it was always ready to enforce the universal 

 law that no wrens may come within a certain distance of the 

 breeding place. In this district October is the breeding month. 

 In selecting a site for the nest the female is chiefly concerned in 

 securing a place somewhat removed from other wrens. Ideal 

 nesting-places are small detached portions of cover situated a 

 short distance from the main cover, and all the better if it 

 contains plenty of tussocky grass. When the young are old 

 enough to make an outcry if disturbed is the time to see a display 

 of pugnacity and courage on the part of the male. It does not 

 flutter or utter alarm notes like the female, but goes silently and 

 swiftly to the attack, with its little body crouched, its wings and 

 tail depressed, and its blue mantle standing out like a ruff. It 

 moves quickly along the twigs or over the ground after the 

 manner of a mouse, making angry darts at the intruder until it 

 retires. Nest-building occupies the female a part of each of six 

 days, and I have not been able to detect a male assisting in this 

 work. A large overhanging tussock comes first in favour as a 

 site for the nest; next, low prickly bushes. During incubation the 

 female leaves the nest frequently to feed. The evening of the 

 first day the young leave the nest is an anxious time for the 

 parents. Much calling and persuasion is needed to get the young 



