94 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 95 



on our house a short distance from a window. The first brood 

 never appeared again after leaving the nest. A few days before 

 the second brood left, something happened to the ,,male parent, 

 for he disappeared; and the female worked incessantly feeding 

 the young ones. 



On the second evening after their departure from the nest we 

 were greatly surprised at the return of the mother bird with her 

 brood of four young ones. Very near to the wren house there is a 

 Syringa bush, which contained an empty catbird's nest, vacated 

 earlier in the summer. So this evening, about sundown, when 

 the wren family returned the little birds got into the catbird's 

 nest and there spent the night. The next evening, much to our 

 delight, they returned and spent the night in the catbird's nest 

 as before. The entire family of four young ones returned with 

 the mother each evening tor fourteen days. On the fifteenth eve- 

 ning one of the young wrens was missing; on the next evening 

 two did not return. And on the evening of the seventeenth day, 

 after leaving the nest, the mother wren brought her one remain- 

 ing young one back to the Syringa bush, and induced it to get 

 into the catbird's nest. But the young bird seemed restless, and 

 in a few minutes hopped out into the bush and flew away. The 

 mother called repeatedly, hopping about in the bush and into 

 the nest. Finally she seemed to realize the futility of her efforts 

 and she left the bush not to return again. 



The catbird's nest was not much over four feet from the 

 window, so that it was possible for us to see very clearly what 

 went on. 



During the day nothing was seen of the brood. Baek of the 

 house there is a wooded ravine, and we believe that they followed 

 this and flew some distance away. When they returned in the 

 evening the mother bird would fly ahead from tree to tree, con- 

 stantly calling to the young ones as they followed her. When 

 they arrived at the bush, she would, get down into the nest, and 

 as soon as the young birds reached it, she would leave. Some- 

 times she would return to feed the young ones, but we never 

 learned where she roosted. 



Miss Maude Merkitt. 



Ottuvnoa, la. 



A PECULIAR HABIT OF THE HOUSE WREN. 



That important discoveries in the sciences and eminent in- 

 ventive ideas have occurred simultaneously in widely separated 

 portions of the world is a well known fact. If a certain habit of 



I 



