352 CERTHIADiE. 



by the inhabitants of the Hebrides (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 19) ; 

 and a detailed account of the wren being called a " king-bird/' 

 over a considerable part of the European continent, will be found 

 in one of the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, 

 entitled the Habits of Birds, p. 49. In the Literary Gazette of 

 February the 28th, 1846, p. 195, is a letter, occupying a column, 

 on the subject of both the wren and regulus, being called king- 

 birds. It was suggested by a communication which Mr. C. Croker 

 made to the British Archgeological Association, on the 4th of that 

 month, as reported in the Lit. Gaz. of the 7th (p. 131). A great 

 deal of information on the hunting of the wren, as well as on that 

 species and the regulus being called king-birds in various countries, 

 is given. It is stated, that in the Isle of Man, Wales, and the 

 south of Prance, the hunting of the wren is practised at Christ- 

 mas. Mr. Croker noticed the subject in connection with a pro- 

 clamation by Richard Dowden, Mayor of Cork, issued at the close 

 of 1845, with the intention, as headed, to "prevent cruelty to 

 animals." "The old popular ceremony long prevalent in Ireland, 

 of hunting and killing a wren on St. Stephen's day," was 

 forbidden. 



Much the fullest description of the wren I have met with, is 

 from the pen of Mr. Weir, and published in Mr. Macgillivray's 

 work just mentioned. In Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, I have 

 met with the wren as commonly as in the British Islands. 



William's army early in the morning, when some wrens, attracted probably by the 

 fragments of the preceding night's meal, alighted on the head of a drum which had 

 served for a table, and the noise of their bills in the act of picking awoke the drum- 

 mer, who instantly beat to arms, and saved William's army from defeat. The wren 

 accordingly, has been ever since a prime favourite with the Orange party, and an object 

 of persecution to the friends of James." — Extract from a small work entitled The 

 Rigbts of Animals, by Wm. H. Drummond, D. D., p. 142. (1838.) 



