WREN. 507 



at its own boldness, down it drops, and j'ou lose sight of it under a 

 tangled mass of ferns. If alarmed, the Wren will often seek safety by 

 creeping into holes in walls, and sometimes will even bury itself amongst 

 dead leaves. It does not appear to like the open, and rarely indeed can be 

 driven from its cover, often allowing itself to be chased backwards and for- 

 wards until from very exhaustion it may be taken with the hand. 



The Wren is a perennial songster. With the exception of a few weeks 

 in early autumn, during the moulting-season, its loud carol may be 

 heard at all times of the year. In spring, when all nature is full of life 

 and vigour, the Wren's wild lay is prominent amongst all the bird-songs, 

 as it pours from the little creature buried and unseen in the dense growth 

 of sprouting ferns, of anemones, and graceful bluebells. In summer he 

 warbles at all hours of the day as he hops restlessly through the cover, and 

 cheei's his sitting mate. In autumn, amidst the showers of falling leaves, 

 the Wren's melody is almost the only bird-music we hear; and in 

 winter his song is just as cheerful amongst the icicle-draped roots and 

 snow-covered branches of our islands as amongst the ruins of the 

 Colosseum at Rome, in the brilliant sunshine of an Italian winter sky. 

 The song of the Wren is remarkably loud for the size of the bird, and is 

 composed of a series of jerking notes with a few beautifully sweet modu- 

 lations, followed by a rapid trill, the whole abruptly terminated as though 

 the bird had been frightened. Its call-notes are a grating tit-it-it, loud, 

 and uttered in quick succession, becoming more rapid should it be alarmed. 

 The Wren rarely sings from the high branches ; and often its pleasing 

 strains are commenced as he flits along, to be finished when he has reached 

 a perching-place. 



Although the Wren pairs as early as the beginning of March, we rarely 

 find its nest until the latter end of April. The Wren is almost universal 

 in its choice of breeding-grounds ; for wherever tangled vegetation 

 occurs of sufficient density to afford it the required seclusion its nest may 

 be looked for. It may be found in the deepest woods, the tangled 

 hedgerows and fences, in gardens and plantations, and even on the barren 

 moors wherever a thicket or a few bushes overgrown with brambles relieve 

 the monotony of the waste. Many of the Wren's breeding-haunts are 

 also similar to those of the Dipper — -by the sides of rapid flowing stream- 

 lets where vegetation is luxuriant and suitable rock-crevices abound. The 

 site for the nest is sometimes far under overhanging banks amongst the 

 gnarled roots of trees ; at others it is in the ivy growing on trees and 

 walls, and is frequently in bushes. Dixon has often known its nest built 

 in a drooping yew-branch, and once found it hanging suspended from an 

 elder tree over a stream. Another situation in which to look for its nest 

 with tolerable certainty is amongst thick brushwood, such as roses and 

 brambles, amongst whose trailing branches the withered leaves have been 



