136 
HOUSE WREN. 
Bird, wlio claims an equal, and sort of hereditary right to the 
box in the garden, when attacked by this little impertinent, 
soon relinquishes the contest, the mild placidness of his dis- 
position not being a match for the fiery impetuosity of his 
little antagonist. With those of his own species who settle 
and build near him, he has frequent squabbles ; and when 
their respective females are sitting, each strains his whole 
powers of song to excel the other. When the young are 
hatched, the hurry and press of business leave no time for 
disputing, so true it is that idleness is the mother of mischief. 
These birds are not confined to the country ; they are to be 
heard on the tops of the houses in the most central parts of our 
cities, singing with great energy. Scarce a house or cottage 
in the country is without at least a pair of them, and some- 
times two ; but unless where there is a large garden, orchard, 
and numerous outhouses, it is not often the case that more 
than one pair reside near the same spot, owing to their party 
disputes and jealousies. It has been said by a friend to this 
little bird, that 44 the esculent vegetables of a whole garden 
may, perhaps, be preserved from the depredations of different 
species of insects, by ten or fifteen pair of these small birds * ■ 
and probably they might, were the combination practicable ; 
but such a congregation of W rens about one garden is a 
phenomenon not to be expected but from a total change in the 
very nature and disposition of the species. 
Having seen no accurate description of this bird in any 
European publication, I have confined my references to Mr 
Bartram and Mr Peale; but though Europeans are not 
ignorant of the existence of this bird, they have considered 
it, as usual, merely as a slight variation from the original 
stock, (M. troglodytes ,) their own Wren; in which they are, 
as usual, mistaken ; the length and bent form of the bill, its 
notes, migratory habits, long tail, and red eggs, are sufficient 
specific differences. 
* Barton’s Fragments, part i. p. 22. 
