How the Tide Wrens Acquired Summer Quarters 17 



I wish that I might say something about the courtship of 

 the wrens, but I must confess, though I cannot understand 

 why, I have never seen any display connected with this most 

 important event. Nearly all birds employ significant and 

 sometimes very pretty mannerisms, and I am still hoping that 

 I will some spring see the way in which these tiny birds make 

 their courtship displays. 



When the tempo of affairs about the nest slackened ap- 

 preciably, I knew that the eggs had been laid and brooding 

 had begun. During that time I saw only one bird at each 

 nest and it spent most of its time singing from the high cat- 

 tails. When the brooding period of less than two weeks was 

 over and I saw both birds flying to the nest with billfuls of 

 food, I knew that the family had arrived and the real work 

 had begun. The thin voices of the young could be heard. All 

 signs of family life appeared— as unmistakable as a clothesline 

 full of diapers and a back porch full of milk bottles. 



The broods were large, five from one and six from the 

 other nest, but our wrens had little difficulty in finding food, 

 for the cattails and loosestrife were so full of insects and 

 grubs that feeding seemed only a matter of. transportation of 

 easily secured material, of trip after trip with loaded bill. 

 The comparative caution that marked the early stages of nest- 

 ing was abandoned. The birds flew directly to the opening, 

 entered without any preliminaries of approach, and reap- 

 peared almost instantly. The efforts of the adults never 

 abated; the appetite of the young appeared insatiable. Their 

 ability to consume this constant stream of food always 

 amazed me. 



This hatching period is the most hazardous of the bird 

 life cycle. Many eggs are destroyed before hatching. Some 

 young birds never live long enough to leave the nest. The 

 nestlings are helpless. They face a multitude of dangers: the 

 attacks of lice, ants, snakes, birds, and mammals. Injury to 

 the parent birds often means the stoppage of food supplies. 



