WREN. 



573 



picked out several such tufts from the nest in the hawthorn spray just 

 mentioned, which are evidently not felted or cemented together by saliva, 

 but as they have naturally grown on the tree. I have often seen a 

 house sparrow flying with a piece of packthread or bass more than a 

 yard long, and consequently about six times its own length ; but it is a 

 much more curious sight to see a Wren carrying a piece of moss almost 

 as large as its own body. When the Wren attaches its nest to the bare 

 clay under an overhanging piece of turf, as well as when it selects the 

 moss-grown trunk of a tree, it first sketches an oval outline of the 

 structure by glueing, with saliva, bits of moss all round, in this manner ; 

 so as to be narrower at top than at bottom. Sometimes, instead of 

 attaching the back of the nest to the clay, it fixes only the arch of the 

 top to it, the under part of the nest being built downwards, and sus- 

 pended therefrom. This foundation of moss is increased by inserting 

 fresh pieces, apparently glued with saliva, as the foundation is glued to 

 the clay, till a large hemisphere is constructed about twenty times the 

 bulk of the little architects, with a small oval hole in the side for an 

 entrance. Sometimes moss is almost the only material used in the 

 whole structure, a smooth bed of the finer sort being used for a lining ; 

 but most commonly there are a few straws, sticks, or dead leaves on 

 the outside, by way of binding to the moss, while the interior is lined 

 with hair, wool, shavings of wood, cotton, worsted, feathers, down, and 

 similar materials, according as they can be had, or rather according to 

 the experience of the birds and their different notions of comfort ; for 

 we have found the nests thus varying even in the same locality. Sepp's 

 figure of this nest is by no means good. 1 It is not a little remarkable 

 that the same bird, though so partial to moss as a building material, in 

 other instances scarcely uses any. I have now two of these nests 

 before me of this sort ; one, which was built in a haystack, is chiefly 

 composed of withered grass of the softer kinds, (Holcus lanatus, fyc.) 

 some of the finer twigs of birch bent into a circular form, the convex 

 part being downwards, and the concavity encompassing the oval entrance 

 of the nest. There are in this a few bits of moss on the back of the 

 structure, as well as in the interior. Another, built in an adjoining hay- 

 stack, was chiefly of moss, which shews that the locality does not always 

 influence the choice of materials. A second nest which I possess has 

 no woody twigs, and scarcely any moss in the walls, which are com- 

 posed of straw and dried grass, (Lolium, Agrestis, Poa, fyc.) several 

 with the seed panicles ; while within, it is lined with dog's hair, and 



1 Nederlandsche Vbgelen, ii. Deel. 



