BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



quarters. The new home did not exactly coincide with the 

 original plans and specifications of the old Heidelberg days, 

 but it was far better suited to their needs — and to their 

 changed conditions. 



Immediately they set to work to furnish it in accordance 

 with wren tastes. From daylight till dark they worked. If 

 there be merit in activity, the banner for worth imdoubtedly 

 belongs to the wren! All sorts of things they carried into 

 it — sticks, straws, rags, paper, anything they could find — ■■ 

 till the cavity was almost filled; then, last of all, feathers 

 enough to make a comfortable feather bed were carried in, 

 and the establishment was complete. 



In this particular case — as in most others — the little 

 dame seemed to be the head of the family, for it was she who 

 carried most of the material, and she who arranged aU of 

 it. Was it because of her earlier creation that she was per- 

 mitted to take the initiative? — or because she enjoyed the 

 work? It certainly was not on account of indolence on the 

 part of her spouse, for while she was making this home, he, 

 capricious little builder, made another nest in the near neigh- 

 borhood. Was this due to the unsatisfied building instinct 

 in him, or did he think it might, be best for him to have a 

 home of his own, in readiness for a possible second choice in 

 case anything should happen to the present sharer of his joys 

 and sorrows? 



During the ten days that our little wren sat in her 

 lichened mansion, her musical mate often enlivened the 

 tedium of the moment by treating her to a delightful serenade 

 as he swung on a bough beneath her window — or by bringing 

 to her choice tidbits in the shape of plxunp spiders or luscious 

 grasshoppers. These he carried in his beak as he climbed 

 the tree exactly as a mouse would climb. It was easy then 



