TROGLODYTES EUROPGEUS. (cuvier.) 

 Common Wren, Kitty Wren. 



The nest of the Wren is of an oval form, arched over and 

 protected on every side ; it is a most beautiful specimen of 

 strength, warmth, and neatness, and so compact is it, and 

 closely interwoven, that one in my collection might be kicked 

 about the floor without at all disarranging or disuniting those 

 minute particles of moss, of which it was first formed ; it is 

 usually constructed of green mosses, and from its close resem- 

 blance to the situation in which it is placed is admirably pro- 

 tected from discovery ; this is most commonly against the 

 moss-grown side of a rock, a bank, or an old tree, in the de- 

 cayed side of which the nest is formed, and were it not for the 

 small hole of entrance, would be regarded only as a portion 

 of the tree ; I have sometimes found the nest covered outside 

 with dry ferns, and have not unfrequently met with it against 

 the side of a clover stack, constructed entirely of the clover, 

 and becoming a piece of the stack itself, and were it not for 

 the flight of the bird from the spot, it would have run no risk 

 of detection. No bird is so jealous of discovery or intrusion. 

 Amongst a great number of nests which I have found in the 

 progress of building, I have never known one proceeded with 

 after having been discovered and touched. It is impossible to 

 thrust the finger into the tiny entrance without disarranging 

 the neatness and beautiful symmetry of its form ; this I have 

 found has, in every instance, caused its abandonment by the 

 owner, and may readily account for the numbers of unfinished 

 nests which we used at school to call ' cocks' nests,"" suppos- 

 ing that they were built by the male bird for its own parti- 

 cular abode. 



The Wren is a hardy solitary little bird, and may be seen 



