March, 1920. 



The Irish Naturalist. 



21 



THE COMMON WREN. 



BY E. P. BUTTERFIELD. 



There are many points in the life-history of the Wren which 

 have not yet been cleared up by naturalists, and as Mr. 

 J. P. Burkitt ^ invites the, observations of other naturalists 

 on these subjects I gladly offer my contribution relative 

 to some of the points which he alludes to. Some of the 

 observations may seem to differ from those of Mr. Burkitt, 

 but it is a well-known fact that birds differ, and differ widely, 

 even in some of their habits in different parts of Britain. 

 Contrary to what one might expect, the Wren is an earlier 

 breeder in north-west Yorkshire than in Ireland, and the 

 relative proportion of males in Ireland much higher than 

 here. . With regard to the building of " cock-nests," it 

 is possible — it might indeed be probable — that these are 

 built exclusively by the cock bird, but nests of this species, 

 other than cock-nests, I think are built mainly by the 

 female ; and is Mr. Burkitt quite sure that the male bird 

 takes no part in feeding the young, until these have left 

 the nest ? If so, the habit is quite different from those 

 which nest here. The controversy round which most 

 interest centres in the nesting habits of the Wren is the use 

 or uses to which the cock-nests are put. As far as my own 

 experience is any guide, I find the chief use of such nests 

 to be roosting and sleeping places, but later I have found 

 such cock-nests lined with feathers and used for breeding 

 purposes. Only last year (1919) on Blackhills I found a 

 nest, in the root of a tree which had been blown down, 

 with eggs — two or three, I forget which, which were taken, 

 and soon after, on going to look at a cock-nest which was 

 built near I found it to contain eggs, and presumed the eggs to 

 have been laid by the female whose eggs had been taken from 

 the nest in the immediate neighbourhood. Another nest with 

 eggs built in a bank beside the beck which runs close to this 

 village, a few years ago, was taken by some boys, who had 

 caught the female on the nest. There was a hen-cote near 

 the nest, within twenty yards, and the boys took nest and 



' Irish Naturalist, 1919, p. 85. 



