40 CLASS AVES. 



cry, which has much resemblance to that of the grasshoppier. 

 They are fond of oaks, elms, lofty pines, fir-trees, and wil- 

 lows. They are not at all distrustful, and may be approached 

 and killed with great ease. 



These birds live on similar food with the titmice, and are 

 very analogous with them in their habits. Their mobility is 

 extreme ; they fly incessantly from branch to branch, climb 

 trees, and hold themselves indifferently in all positions, and 

 often have the feet upwards. The smallest insects constitute 

 their ordinary nutriment ; sometimes they take them on the 

 wing, at others seek them in the clefts of the bark, or the 

 heaps of dead leaves which remain at the end of the branches ; 

 they also eat larvae and all kinds of small worms ; it is said 

 that they will eat the berries of evergreens ; be that as it 

 may, it is quite certain, that they are fonder of those trees 

 than any others, probably, because they find there a greater 

 abundance of insects which constitute the basis of their 

 aliment. They grow fat in autumn, and their flesh is then 

 good eating ; notwithstanding their smallness, Montbeillard 

 tells us that the markets of Nuremberg abound with these 

 little birds ; many are taken in the environs of that city, and 

 usually by the bird-call. 



These wrens are seldom seen in France, but in the after 

 season. They scarcely ever nestle in any of the French pro- 

 vinces ; but in summer they are abundant in the woods of 

 Germany and England. Their nest, curiously constructed, 

 and suspended to the extremity of the little branches of pines 

 and other trees, is tissued without with moss, wool, and 

 spiders' webs, and furnished within with the softest down ; 

 this nest is spherical, and its aperture is at top. The female 

 lays from six to eight eggs, about the size of peas, of a yellow- 

 ish brown, without any spot, according to some naturalists, 

 but of a pale flesh-colour, undulated with a deeper shade, 

 according to Meyer. M. Temminck declares them to be a 

 rose coloured white, but Dr. Latham says they are of a 



