COMMON WREN. 55 
nest by forming it, as a rule, of materials which render it 
inconspicuous on account of its resemblance to its sur- 
roundings, but it is extremely jealous of even the approach 
of man during the process of construction. On one occa- 
sion, whilst 1 was watching the building of a nest from 
what I thought a safe distance, the bird seemed to 
become aware of my presence, and abruptly deserted ; 
even when the nest is completed, and after eggs have been 
deposited, the mere insertion of one’s finger into the 
entrance hole during the absence of the parent bird will 
almost invariably result in desertion. Only on one occa- 
sion, inthe case of a nest built under a tall drooping furze 
bush, I succeeded in abstracting two eggs (substituting for 
them small white pebbles), and subsequently, on visiting the 
nest, I discovered that the clutch had been completed; such 
instances probably occur but once in a life-time. After the 
eggs are hatched the mother bird is less timid, and Hewitson 
speaks of one that even sat still upon eggs whilst the nest was 
handled, a statement I could believe if the bird had been the 
Blue Tit, but a fact hardly conceivable in the case of the 
Wren. In the ‘ Zoologist,’ Oct. 1883, I have noted the 
adoption of a Swallow’s nest by this bird. 
