OUR HOME BIRDS. 
83 
birds sticking out of his pocket ! I wish they’d build 
in my pocket, though : I’d let ’em stay.” 
“ Not if you needed the garment to wear, I think,” 
replied the governess, laughing ; “ and wrens are so 
accustomed to building nests which are never used that 
it cannot inconvenience them very much to have one 
destroyed now and then. They are very saucy, too, 
in trying to take possession of nests that do not belong 
to them, and when they cannot succeed will sometimes 
revenge themselves by popping in and pulling out 
sticks, taking special care, though, to make off after- 
ward as fast as possible. The truth is, the wren is 
a particularly quarrelsome little creature, attacking 
without hesitation birds of tw T ice its size if they ven- 
ture to build near its habitation, and generally for- 
cing them to decamp. It has been know r n to drive a 
pair of sw r allows from their newly-made nest, and take 
immediate possession of the premises, in which the 
female laid her eggs and reared her young. ‘ Even 
the blue-bird, who claims an equal and sort of hered- 
itary right to the box in the garden, when attacked 
by this little impertinent soon relinquishes the con- 
test, the mild placidness of his disposition not being 
a match for the fiery impetuosity of his little antag- 
onist. With those of his own species who settle and 
build near him he has frequent squabbles, and v T hen 
their respective females are sitting each strains his 
