94 THE WREN, THE HEDGE-SPARROW, 



when we look at it, we find it so perpetually on 

 the move, that I cannot recollect to have ob- 

 served this diminutive rover at rest on a branch 

 for three minutes in continuation. Its habits 

 are solitary to the fullest extent of the word ; 

 and it seems to bear hard weather better than 

 either the hedge-sparrow or the robin ; for 

 whilst these two birds approach our habitations 

 in quest of food and shelter, with their plumage 

 raised as indicative of cold, the wren may be 

 seen in ordinary pursuit, amid icicles which hang 

 from the bare roots of shrubs and trees, on the 

 banks of the neighbouring rivulets ; and amongst 

 these roots, it is particularly fond of building 

 its oval nest. 



The ancients called the wren, Troglodytes ; 

 but it is now honoured with the high-sounding 

 name of Anorthura ; alleging for a reason, that 

 the ancients were quite mistaken in their sup- 

 position that this bird was an inhabitant of 

 caves, as it is never to be seen within them. 

 Methinks that the ancients were quite right, — 

 and that our modern masters in ornithology are 

 quite wrong. If we only for a moment reflect, 

 that the nest of the wren is spherical, and is of 

 itself, as it were, a little cave, we can easily 



