WREN. 
578 
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 hemis23here 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.* 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, ^c.) 
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^ ^’c.) several 
with the seed panicles ; while within, it is lined with dog’s hair, and 
‘ Nederlandsche Vdgelen, ii. Deel. 
