208 ornithologist's text-book. ivy wren. 



it on the branches of wall fruit trees, at the tops 

 of raspberries and honey-suckles, amongst the 

 dense foliage of the fir, in hollow trees, on the 

 luxuriant Clematis on the tops and sides of ar- 

 bours, in hop trellises, in tall thick hedges, and 

 also, though not very frequently, in corners of 

 hay-lofts, granaries, and similar places. I have 

 likewise seen it under the thatch of hay and corn 

 ricks. Few birds build in such a variety of locali- 

 ties, and fewer still display so much diversity in 

 their architectural doings. It has already been 

 observed, that green moss is the principal material 

 of the nest in ordinary localities. It will be ne- 

 cessary, however, to notice, as briefly as possible, 

 some of the varieties to which the structure is 

 subject. 



Of the above-mentioned deviations from the 

 common locality, I have found the building in 

 raspberry bushes to be the most common, and in 

 such I have had frequent opportunities of observ- 

 ing the method in which the little architects go to 

 work. It is a curious, and to Naturalists a well 

 known, fact, that this bird varies the materials of 

 its nest according to the situation in which it may 

 happen to be placed* ; and, accordingly, those 

 built in ivy-clad walls or trees, or in mossy spots 

 of any kind, invariably consist almost wholly of 

 green moss outside. But, when it nidificates in 

 raspberry bushes, scarcely a particle of moss is 

 employed, the whole structure, both externally and 

 internally, being composed of the leaves of the 

 rasjjherry. This is one of the most extraordinary 

 departures from the ordinary mode of nest-building 

 with which I am acquainted ; and, though three 



* This circumstance is observable, to a certain degree, in the 

 nests of many other birds ; but in none is it so conspicuous as in 

 the species now under consideration. 



