268 SINGING BIRDS. 
just sufficient for her to creep in and out. Within this judi- 
cious fort is placed the proper nest, of the usual hemispherical 
figure, formed of layers of dried stalks of grass, and lined with 
feathers. The eggs, from 6 to 9, are of a reddish flesh-color, 
sprinkled all over with innumerable fine grains of a somewhat 
deeper tint. They generally rear two broods in the season: 
the first take to flight about the beginning of June, and the 
second in July or August. The young are early capable of 
providing for their own subsistence and twittering forth their 
petulant cry of alarm. It is both pleasant and amusing to 
observe the sociability and activity of these recent nurslings, 
who seem to move in a body, throwing themselves into antic 
attitudes, often crowding together into the old nests of other 
birds, and for some time roosting near their former cradle, 
under the affectionate eye of their busy parents, who have 
perhaps already begun to prepare the same nest for a new 
progeny. Indeed, so prospective and busy is the male that 
he frequently amuses himself with erecting another mansion 
even while his mate is still sitting on her eggs; and this curi- 
ous habit of superfluous labor seems to be more or less common 
to the whole genus. 
One of these Wrens, according to Wilson, happened to lose 
his mate by the sly and ravenous approaches of a cat, — an ani- 
mal which they justly hold in abhorrence. The day after this 
important loss, our little widower had succeeded in introducing 
to his desolate mansion a second partner, whose welcome 
appeared by the ecstatic song which the bridegroom now 
uttered ; after this they remained together, and reared their 
brood. In the summer of 1830 I found a female Wren who 
had expired on the nest in the abortive act of laying her first 
egg. I therefore took away the nest from under the edge of the 
shed in which it was built. The male, however, continued 
round the place as before, and still cheerfully uttered his 
accustomed song. Unwilling to leave the premises, he now 
went to work and made, unaided, another dwelling, and after 
a time brought a new mate to take possession ; but less faith- 
ful than Wilson’s bird, or suspecting some lurking danger, she 
