The Common 
Wren. 
(154) THE BIRD WORLD. 
TKe Common Wren. 
By “LICHEN GREY/' 
In addition to being one of our 
smallest native birds, the common Wren 
is certainly one of the most useful. 
Resident in the garden and the shrub¬ 
bery throughout the year, it never tires 
of prying into all sorts of out of the 
way corners, where plant lice and insects 
may be hidden away, and the number of 
garden pests destroyed by it in the course 
of a year must be great indeed. Along 
the hedgerows, and in the quiet, wooded 
glen, late and early, the Wren 
“ Frae den to den 
Gaes jinking through the thorn . !5 
on the same errand of usefulness to 
mankind. It wanders far up the moun¬ 
tain side, beyond the growth of trees, 
and is, in winter, often the only form of 
small bird life to be met with on the 
lonely moors. Yet even here, amidst 
the solitude, its cheerfulness of charac¬ 
ter never deserts it, and it is- always 
willing to play a game of hide and 
seek with the intruder in its haunts 
amongst the rocks and bracken. Dis¬ 
appearing under an overhanging bank 
there, to pop out again some yards 
further on, its movements often bear 
more resemblance to these of a 
mouse than a bird; but its knowledge 
of the geography of all these nooks 
and crannies -emanates from the same 
source—the ceaseless search after insect 
food. And, no matter where its tent is 
pitched, it brightens up its little neigh¬ 
bourhood with snatches of song during 
much more than half the year. 
It is when met with in these out of 
the way places that the Wren seems best 
to justify one of the pet names it bears 
in some districts of “ Kitty alone.” In 
many places it is “ Kitty ” only, or 
11 Kitty-me-Wren ” ; in others its familiar 
name is “ Jenny ”; in Cornwall it be¬ 
comes “ Wranny,” probably from the 
Anglo-Saxon Wrenna-, in some of the 
Scottish Islands it is “ Wrannock ”; in 
Gaelic, “ Dreollan ” or “ Dreadhan ” ; in 
Cymry, “ Dryw ” or “ Dryw-bach.” In 
Pembroke it is commonly known as 
“ Cut ”'or “ Cutty,” from the Welsh Cwt, 
short, in reference to its tail. In an old 
Scotch poem the Wren is called “ Our 
Lady of Heaven’s Hen,” and a general 
curse is invoked upon anyone who har¬ 
ries its nest, the story being that a Wren 
carried moss and leaves to the cross in 
order to make a pillow for our Saviour’s 
head. The dingy markings of its 
plumage, and the shortness of its tail, 
are said to be due to an heroic, though 
unsuccessful, attempt of the Wren to 
filch fire from heaven for the general 
good of dwellers upon earth; and 
the poor Wren was so singed in the 
venture that it barely escaped with its 
A Nest in the Ivy. 
Its Architect and Builder surveying the 
workmanship. 
