A FEATHERED ARTIST. 
115 
Be it remembered that the wren appeals to our sympathy and 
protection, not only by his familiar and gentle ways, but by the 
sweetness of his song. In the whole insectivorous tribe a finer 
musician can scarcely be found, though this is by no means generally 
known. But what says Bishop Mant? — 
" The quick note of the russet wren, 
Familiar to the haunts of men ; 
He quits, in hollowed wall, his bower, 
And through the winter's gloomy horn- 
Sings cheerily ; nor yet hath lost 
His bUtheness, chilled by pinching frost ; 
Nor yet is forced for warmth to cleave 
To caverned nook, or straw-built eave. 
Sing, gentle bird ! sing on, designed 
A lesson for our anxious kind ; 
That we, like thee, with hearts content, 
Enjoy the blessings God hath sent. 
His bounty trust, perform His wiU, 
Xor antedate uncertain iU ! " 
The strain is loud, shrill, not very varied, but exceedingly agreeable; 
and as the wonder was, with respect to a certain celebrated personage, 
that one small head could carry all he knew, so it is a marvel that so 
diminutive a bird can pipe so loud and clear a strain. When the snow 
is lying deep upon the moorlands, and the gray shadows on the face 
of heaven indicate a coming storm, and the wind sobs in the distance 
like one in pain, and the bare branches of the trees are white with 
rime, and all the sweet sounds of nature are hushed and still, nothing 
pleasanter can be imagined than the blithe music of the wren, 
which seems to convey to the heart of man a lesson of hope and 
encouragement. 
Toussenel writes of this bird as only a French naturalist can. This 
creature, he says, of talent so great and of proportion so small, is not 
less richly gifted in the qualities of the heart than in those of the voice. 
He is the bravest of the brave, un brave des braves ; something like a 
second edition, a diamond edition, an alter ego of the robin redbreast. 
It is beautiful to see him attack the owl! The troglodyte, a lion in 
battle, disdains manoeuvres. No sooner does he hea,r — or imagine 
that he hears- — the cry of the hated enemy, than he forces his way 
