ROOSTING HABITS OF CERTAIN BIRDS. 5 
It is a foolish and short-sighted policy, for even from the 
game preserver’s and farmer’s standpoint, hawks and owls are 
proved to be of the greatest service ; the slight injury they 
occasionally inflict being far counterbalanced by the good they do. 
When we consider all the appeals already made for considera- 
tion, and all that has been written to enlighten those concerned, 
it seems, we admit, almost hopeless to convince game preservers 
that the extirpation of hawks and owls is a stupid and cruel 
crime. Yet we must not be discouraged, for it is only by con- 
tinual reiteration we can hope to bring home the truth, and thus 
induce them to stay the destroying hand. 
John Cordeaux. 
ROOSTING HABITS OF CERTAIN BIRDS. 
N the night of January ii, 1 accidentally discovered a 
wren sleeping in the dilapidated remains of a thrush’s 
nest. Since then this nest has been occupied nearly 
every night, either by one, two, or occasionally three of 
these little birds. The hard, cold, mud-plastered interior of a 
thrush’s nest seems but a sorry substitute for a comfortable lining 
of soft feathers with which the king of birds furnishes his own 
nursery. Wrens, as is well known, often utilise their own nests 
as winter sleeping places ; many of them crowding together in 
one nest for the sake of warmth. Not long ago I watched a 
company of these little birds turning in for the night : one after 
another they kept disappearing through the tiny and perfectly 
circular entrance-hole, till all were safely stowed away in the 
warm, dark interior. They do not, however, always make use 
of their nests for this purpose, but are often found sleeping in 
hay-stacks, in holes in thatch, and other suitable places. An 
instance is recorded in The Zoologist of April, 1886, of no less 
than ten wrens roosting regularly in a coco-nut shell suspended 
from a verandah, notwithstanding that this shell was already 
occupied by a growing plant. Whether these gatherings are 
family parties consisting exclusively of the parents with the 
young reared during the previous summer or otherwise, I do 
not know, but in either case there must every morning be a 
general dispersion, each bird going its own way on its daily 
foraging expedition, but all re-assembling in the evening when 
bedtime comes round. Wrens do not hunt (if the expression 
be allowed) in packs or families, like the long-tailed tit, and one 
.seldom sees more than two together during the day — indeed, in 
autumn and winter the little bird is generally met with quite 
alone. 
The thrush’s nest mentioned above had been built in some 
ivy close under the eaves of a thatched summer-house — a build- 
