136 WRENS. 



quickly whirring wings, appears little larger than a 

 large moth flying low to the ground, and then darting 

 into the hedge opposite. When he thinks himself 

 unobserved he will come to the top of the hedge, and 

 as he fires off his rattling song, cocks up his small 

 stump of a tail at right angles to his hack, a feat 

 peculiar to this bird. The Common Wren is generally 

 distributed, and builds a globular nest, with a circular 

 entrance at the side, and this nest it packs in all 

 sorts of out-of-the-way corners : among denuded tree- 

 roots by the road or brook side, i^ holes in walls, or 

 in the close fork of branches, in the hedge-packing, 

 or in ivy growing about trees ; in short, anywhere 

 where the tangle is dense enough Or a hollow retired 

 enough to receive its ball of a nest. The Common 

 Wren's song is wonderfully powerful for so small a 

 bird, and opens with a few repeated, clearly whistled 

 notes, followed by a more rapid warble of the same 

 quality of tone, into which, just before concluding, 

 he invariably inserts a series of rattling, mechanical 

 notes. The song, which is a long one, is repeated 

 without variation. Winter brings the Wren into our 

 gardens, but as it is entirely an insect-eater, it comes 

 only to canvass the bark, old wood, cracks and crevices 

 in the palings, and the like, for insects and their 

 larvae. Its note is frequently to be heard at this 

 time — a sustained Tet-tet-ing, resembling the click- 

 ing of cogs when a clock is being wound ; and, indeed, 

 it is the same mechanical rattle that the bird inserts 

 before ending its song. The song is also to be heard 

 during winter when the weather is open. There is 

 no other bird with the small, brown, rounded body 

 and the short, cocked tail of the Common Wren. 



