HOUSE WREN. 
135 
returned in a few minutes, and instantly began to carry out 
the eggs, feathers, and some of the sticks, supplying the place 
of the two latter with materials of the same sort ; and ulti- 
mately succeeded in raising a brood of seven young, all of 
which escaped in safety. 
The immense number of insects which this sociable little 
bird removes from the garden and fruit trees, ought to endear 
him to every cultivator, even if he had nothing else to recom- 
mend him; but his notes, loud, sprightly, tremulous, and 
repeated every few seconds with great animation, are extremely 
agreeable. In the heat of summer, families in the country 
often dine under the piazza adjoining green canopies of mantling 
grape vines, gourds, &c. while overhead the trilling vivacity 
of the Wren, mingled with the warbling mimicry of the Mock- 
ing Bird, and the distant, softened sounds of numerous other 
songsters, that we shall hereafter introduce to the reader’s 
acquaintance, form a soul-soothing and almost heavenly music, 
breathing peace, innocence, and rural repose. The European 
who judges of the song of this species by that of his own 
Wren, (M. troglodytes ,) will do injustice to the former, as 
in strength of tone, and execution, it is far superior, as well 
as the bird is in size, figure, and elegance of markings, to the 
European one. Its manners are also different ; its sociability 
greater. It is no underground inhabitant ; its nest is differ- 
ently constructed, the number of its eggs fewer ; it is also 
migratory ; and has the tail and bill much longer. Its food is 
insects and caterpillars, and, while supplying the wants of its 
young, it destroys, on a moderate calculation, many hundreds 
a day, and greatly circumscribes the ravages of these vermin. 
It is a bold and insolent bird against those of the Titmouse 
and Woodpecker kind that venture to build within its juris- 
diction ; attacking them without hesitation, though twice its 
size, and generally forcing them to decamp. I have known 
him drive a pair of Swallows from their newly formed nest, 
and take immediate possession of the premises, in which his 
female also laid her eggs, and reared her young. Even the Blue 
