264: 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
The nest having been completed, a few days are allowed for drying 
before the female essays to deposit her chocolate-colored treasures, some 
six to nine in number. A day is allowed for each egg, usually, but we 
have found nests which showed that more than one had been laid on some 
days, hut these were excej)tional cases. The female is the first to incu- 
bate. When tired of the duty, she summons her companion, who is never 
far away, and resigns the care to him, while she strays off to a short 
distance for food and recreation. At such times, the males are exceedingly 
pugnacious, and will not allow any trespassers. The females, on the con- 
trary, are less demonstrative. After fourteen days of close sitting and 
vigilance, the young appear, and need the most assiduous attentions. 
And such they receive. Few parents are more devoted. From early 
morning until night, the one or the other is on the go, in quest of some 
juicy morsel of insect-food for their keen appetites. And what is their 
reward? In a fortnight, a whole nest-full of bright, rollicking and chirp- 
ing children. Proud of their charges, they still continue to care for them 
a week longer, when they lead them one by one out of the nursery, and 
introduce them to the world. The young are now old enough to encounter 
the dangers and trials of life, while the j^arents not contented with having 
successfully raised one family, after a brief season of repose, depart to a 
spot close-hy, where they immediately rear another domicile, which they 
people as before. This occurs late in June, or early in July. 
The eggs of this Wren are oval in shape; occasionally, spheroidal. 
They are generally marked, quite profusely, with blotches of deep chocolate- 
brown, so as to present an almost uniform appearance. Sometimes, a darker 
area is seen at the larger extremity, or around it. Again, specimens are 
met with which display a whitish ground, thickly dotted with chocolate, 
or a nearly uniform brownish-white surface, with a few of the character- 
istic blotches remaining, as if the color had been washed out. The ave- 
rage length of a set of nine before us is .65 inches, and average breadth 
,50. It is quite common to find a very large number of eggs, diminutive 
specimens, called “runt” eggs, which measure only .53 by .46. 
