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that “as to the origin of the whimsical but absurd and cruel custom [of hunting the Wren] we 
have no data. A legend, however, is still current among the peasantry which may serve in some 
degree to elucidate it. ‘Ina grand assembly of all the birds of the air, it was determined that 
the sovereignty of the feathered tribe should be conferred upon the one who would fly highest. 
The favourite in the betting-book was of course the Eagle, who at once, and in full confidence of 
victory, commenced his flight towards the sun; when he had vastly distanced all competitors, he 
proclaimed with a mighty voice his monarchy over all things that had wings. Suddenly, how- 
ever, the Wren, who had secreted himself under the feathers of the Kagle’s crest, popped from 
his hiding-place, flew a few inches upwards, and chirped out as loudly as he could, ‘ Birds, look 
up and behold your king!’ There is also a tradition that in ‘ould ancient times,’ when the 
native Irish were about to catch their Danish enemies asleep, a Wren perched upon the drum 
and woke the slumbering sentinels just in time to save the whole army; in consequence of 
which, the little bird was proclaimed a traitor, outlawed, and his life declared forfeit whenever 
he was henceforward encountered. —Mr. and Mrs. 8S. C. Hall's Ireland, vol. i. p. 25. The lines, 
according to the same work, are :— 
««The Wran, the Wran, the King of all birds, 
St. Stephen’s day was cot in the furze ; 
Although he is little, his family’s grate, 
Put your hand in your pocket, and give us a trate. 
Sing holly, sing ivy,—sing ivy, sing holly, 
A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy. 
And if ye dhraw it ov the best, 
I hope in heaven yer soul will rest, 
But if you dhraw it ov the small, 
It wont agree wid de Wran boys at all.’ ” 
The fable respecting the Eagle and the Wren is known in most parts of Europe, but is 
almost as often applied to the Golden-crested Wren as to the present species. Ido not, however, 
find the custom of hunting the Wren recorded from any other part of the continent excepting in 
Southern France. Professor Newton, in the edition of Yarrell now being published, gives the 
following particulars, which I cannot do better than transcribe, as they combine all the available 
information on the subject:—“It seems to have been first noticed by Charles Smith, in his 
‘State of the County of Cork’ (ii. p. 334, note), published in 1750, as followed in the south of 
Ireland, and subsequently by Vallanay (Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, iv. no. 13, p. 97). On 
Christmas day boys and men, each using two sticks, one to beat the bushes, the other to fling at 
the bird, went out in a body to hunt and kill the Wren, which from its habit of making but 
short flights, was no doubt soon done to death. On the following day, the feast of St. Stephen, 
the dead bird, hung by the leg between two hoops, crossed at right angles and decked with 
ribbons, was carried about by the ‘ Wren boys,’ who sang a song beginning ‘ Droeilin Droeilin, ri 
an t-eum’ (that is, ‘Wren, Wren, king of birds’), and begged money ‘to bury the wren.’ This 
ceremony, which, however it may have arisen, had become quite senseless, was, when Thompson 
wrote, falling into disuse; and in 1845 the then Mayor of Cork by proclamation forbade its 
continuance, 
