IVY WREN. ORNITHOLOGIST'S TEXT-BOOK. 215 



little songster, yet remains to be noticed. How- 

 ever its nest may differ in other particulars, it 

 always agrees in this, that, around the entrance, 

 moss and small twigs are invariably woven. With- 

 out this precaution, it is probable that the nest, 

 being composed almost wholly of moss, would soon 

 lose its beauty and symmetry, from the constant 

 ingress and egress of the parent birds. This is so 

 prominent a feature in the structure, that almost 

 every one at all interested in this delightful branch 

 of Natural Science, must have remarked it, though 

 I believe it is mentioned by none of our ornitholo- 

 gical writers. 



The eggs, from eight to ten in number, are of a 

 pure white, or sometimes dusky, spotted with red- 

 dish brown at the larger end. The circumstance 

 mentioned by the older Ornithologists, and still 

 echoed by the compilers of the present day*, of the 

 Ivy Wren's laying eighteen or twenty eggs, is 

 wholly incorrect; eight being, according to my ex- 

 perience, the usual number. There are sometimes 

 fewer, but, I believe^ never more. How this mis- 

 take, with regard to the number of its eggs, could 

 possibly arise, it passeth my understanding to de- 

 termine. Not only has it been repeated by authors 

 of good repute, however, but most sagacious reflec- 

 tions have likewise been made on the circumstance ; 

 to wit, how T so small a bird should be able to sup- 

 port so numerous a progeny, without ever missing 

 an individual, and feeding them all in order ; also 

 as to the wisdom of Providence, and so forth— all 

 which sage and profound observations were founded 



* I know not what the Prince of Compilers may have pasted into 

 his "faulty Dictionary" on this subject, as I never take the needless 

 trouble of referring to his unskilful botchings and hashes, but some 

 other book Naturalists are still endeavoring to perpetuate this error 

 to the best of their ability. 



