Birds. 



7935 



Food of the Wren — Under this title Mr. Doubleday calls a statement of mine, 

 made in an article read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool 

 and published in the ' Proceedings' of that Society, an error. The majority of the 

 patrons of the 'Zoologist' will probably not have read the article, so that I may 

 perhaps be excused for quoting the passage in question here, and making a few 

 remarks upon it. " In winter, this bird, though so small, feeds extensively on snails, 

 extracting them from the shells in an ingenious manner. When a snail is found, it is 

 conveyed to a selected stone, and tapped upon it until the shell breaks, or the animal 

 otherwise becomes detached. It is then easily taken out and devoured. The same 

 stone will often be resorted to for a long time, so that a considerable number of shells 

 will frequently be accumulated. These remains may often be noticed, and as often 

 perhaps have puzzled the beholder." I have certainly never watched the wren operate 

 upon a snail, but I have often seen more or less of broken shells round a stone 

 in spots where I never saw a thrush, and that in places where the thrush would 

 not be likely to frequent. These accumulations of broken snail-shells are not in- 

 frequent on the Cheshire and Welsh sand-hills, sometimes occurring near the margin 

 of the shore at a long distance from even tree or bush. A wren generally frequented 

 the neighbourhood of each of these localities, and was constantly seen near the broken 

 fragments. This, of course, is not conclusive evidence, but it is presumptive. With 

 regard to Mr. Doubleday's remark, " that a wren could not by any possibility break 

 the shell of a snail, and if it could detach the animal in any other way it would not 

 swallow it.'' I fancy that the wren could break a suail's shell by tapping it on 

 a stone, and that it could devour the animal, not by swallowing it entire, but by 

 eating it piecemeal. No one would suppose that the blue tit could swallow a 

 thrown-out bone, yet this bird often feasts on these remains. The raven also gorges 

 himself upon a sheep's c arcase, yet who would say that betakes it entire. Con- 

 cerning Mr. Doubleday's remark as to wrens congregating to roost, I beg to say that 

 these birds are no rarity in Lancashire and Cheshire, and to quote my statement on 

 the subject. " In winter, also, wrens congregate in numbers in warm sheltered 

 roosti rig-places. At dusk, the observer, by remaining quiet, may see them coming 

 singly from all directions to a favourite haystack. On arrival, they locate themselves 

 in holes previously made round the sides by their own species, or other small birds. 

 By going after dark, the observer may sometimes take them by the dozen in a handful 

 from one hole." T have caught numbers in the way described, and, in one instance, 

 I remember almost filling the pockets of my then boy's clothes out of a few holes in a 

 stack ; I afterwards let the birds go. In support of my statement that wrens do so 

 congregate, I need only refer to Yarrell on the subject; to a note in the * Zoologist' 

 (Zool. 564), by S. H. Haslam ; to a second note in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 4702), by 

 Jonathan Couch; and to a third in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 5516), by S. C. Tress 

 Beale. — James Fitzherbert Brock/ioles ; Puddington, near Neston, Cheshire, February 

 19, 1862. 



Deposition of Eggs by the Cuckoo. — The following passage occurs in the preface 

 to the ' Zoologist' for 1861 : — " Ornithologists have not yet shown us how the cuckoo's 

 egg is introduced into nests which, from their situation, the cuckoo herself could 

 not enter." I think there can be little doubt to the reflecting mind that the 

 only method by which the cuckoo could by any possibility effect her object in the 

 cases referred to is by taking the eggs in her beak ; there never having been a nest (as 

 far as I am aware) found with a cuckoo's egg in it, into which the mother-bird could 



