116 
BRAVE AS C^SAR. 
into his retreat to peck at his eyes ; and great is his disappointment 
if he find a man where he lioped to encounter an adversary. 
It may be presumed that our tiny hero's reputation for bravery was 
well established among the ancients, since Roman history dwells on 
the analogy between him and Julius Csesar. It is recorded that on the 
eve of the day when the world's dictator received his two-and-twenty 
wounds at the foot of Pompey's statue, a king wren was similarly 
attacked in the public place by a score of other bii-ds; and this event, 
which seemed a bad omen for the new " king," produced a deep im- 
pression on the minds of his friends, and induced tliem to believe that 
a conspiracy was meditated. 
"Brave as Csesar;" such is the evidence which Roman history bears 
to the wren's heroic qualities. Is it not obvious that the very name of 
Regulus, in French Roitelet, was given to him in honour of his brilliant 
courage, and his likeness in many respects to the illustrious prisoner of 
Carthage, — him who returned to certain death rather than break his 
plighted faith ? As Toussenel i-emarks, this etymology is quite ne^v, 
smd must be taken for what it is worth ; to which may be added, that 
the regulus (or kinglet) belongs to the Luscinidce, not, as the wren 
does, to the Certhiidce. 
The wren possesses too many of the virtues of the redbreast not to 
have some of his defects. He is too great an artist not to be jealous 
(are all great artists jealous ? Was Michael Angelo jealous of Raphael ?) : 
he sines too well not to love to sing alone; he is too brave not to be 
somewhat too fond of fighting. For those of his own species, therefore, 
he is a scourge; provoking now this one, now that, to single combat, in 
confinement as in freedom, and not unfrequently slaying his opponent. 
But the prime misfortune of our troglodyte is his smallness. Like all 
dwarfs, he is passionate, and much given to exaggerate his capacity in 
everything. Veracious history relates that a wren one day wagered he 
would Hy higher than the eagle; and he won his wager by an ingenious 
but not honourable stratagem. To fly higher than the eagle, nothing 
more was necessary than that he should climb upon his back, and install 
himself there without being perceived by the king of birds. This was 
successfully accomplished; and when the bird of Jove, soaring into the 
