92 BIRDS AND MAN 



gold. The small winged insects, sun-loving and 

 sensitive to cold, then hold their revels near the 

 surface ; and the bird, too, prefers the neighbour- 

 hood of the earth. It was so in the case of the 

 wood wren I observed at WeUs, watching him 

 on several consecutive days, sometimes for an 

 hour or two at a stretch, and generally more 

 than once a day. The spot where he was always 

 to be found was quite free from und^wood, and 

 the trees were straight and tall, most of them 

 with slender smooth boles. Standing there, my 

 figure must have looked very conspicuous to all 

 the small birds in the place ; but for a time it 

 seemed to me that the wood wren paid not the 

 slightest attention to my presence ; that as he 

 wandered hither and thither in sunUght and 

 shade at his own sweet will, my motionless 

 form was no more to him than a moss-grown 

 stump or grey upright stone. By and by it 

 became apparent that the bird knew me to be 

 no stump or stone, but a strange living creature 

 whose appearance greatly interested him ; for 

 invariably, soon after I had taken up my position, 

 his careless little flights from twig to twig and 

 from tree to tree brought him nearer, and then 



