THE SLENDER-BILLED PERCHERB. 259 



the withered top of a pear-tree, where it sat for some time, dressing 

 its disordered plumage, and then shot off like a meteor." 



Fear will also produce the same effect, as they have repeat- 

 edly died when caught in a common gauze net, which does not 

 injure eyen the delicate scales of the butterfly's wing. They are 

 very quarrelsome little creatures, and frequently fight with ex- 

 panded crests and ruffled feathers, until they fall exhausted to the 

 ground. 



The nests are very neat and beautiful, and, as may be im- 

 agined from the diminutive size of the little architect, exceedingly 

 small. They are composed of down, cotton, etc., and are some- 

 times covered on the outside with mosses and lichens. Waterton 

 relates a' curious formation of the nest of one particular species, 

 whose habitations are built at the extremity of thin branches. 



" Instinct teaches one species, which builds its nest on the 

 slender branches which hang over the rivers, to make a rim round 

 the mouth of the nest, turned inwards, so as to prevent the eggs 

 from rolling out. , . The trees on the river's bank are particularly 

 exposed to violent gusts of wind, and when I have been sitting in 

 the canoe and looking on, I have seen the slender branch of the 

 tree which held the humming-bird's nest so violently shaken, that 

 the bottom of the inside of the nest has appeared, and had there 

 been nothing at the rim to stop the eggs, they must inevitably have 

 been jerked out into the water." 



The Wren shares with the robin some immunity from 

 juvenile sportsmen. Although it may be fearlessly hopping about 

 in the hedge, jerking its funny little tail, and playing its antics 

 just at the muzzle of the gun, few boys will fire at it. 



A singular anecdote is related of this bird : " In the end 

 of June, 1835, a person was shooting in the neighborhood of 

 Bandrakehead, in the parish of Colton, Westmoreland, England : 

 he killed a brace of blue titmice, which some time before had 

 been observed to be constructing a nest, in the end of a house 

 belonging to a Mr. Innes, of the same place. In the course of 

 the day, it was ascertained that the titmice had completed the 

 time of incubation, and that their death had consequently left 



