82 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
cruelty. The Druids are stated to have regarded the Wren as the king of birds. 
The superstitious respect which they paid it gave offence to the early Christian 
missionaries, and by their commands the bird is still hunted and killed on 
Christmas Day, and on the next (St. Stephen’s) day it is carried about, hung in 
a loop of string, and processions of children in Ireland sing and ask for gifts 
as they bear it round. In Essex the same superstition is (or was until lately) 
acted upon, boys chasing and killing Wrens, and then bearing them from house 
to house singing— 
“ The Wren, the Wren, the king of the birds, 
St. Stephen’s Day was killed in the furze ; 
Although he is little, his honour is great; 
And so, good people, pray give us a treat.” 
The origin of this persecution is reported to have sprung from the Wren giving 
notice to the Danes just before they were to have been massacred, by which they 
escaped. In Ireland another form of this story is given by Aubrey (“ Mis¬ 
cellanies,” 1696, p. 47). After speaking of the last battle fought in the north of 
Ireland between the Protestants and Papists, at Glinsuly, in Donegal, he says:— 
“ Near the same place a party of Protestants had been surprised sleeping by the 
Popish Irish were it not for several Wrens, that just wakened them by dancing 
and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the 
wild Irish mortally hate these birds to this day, calling them the devil’s servants, 
and killing them wherever they catch them. They teach their children to thrust 
them full of thorns. You will see sometimes, on holidays, a whole parish running 
like madmen from hedge to hedge a Wren-hunting.” Yet another variant appears 
in the Isle of Man, where the Wren is believed to be a transformed fairy; for 
once upon a time a fairy of great malevolence oppressed the island, until a 
knight-errant attempted her destruction. Just at the last moment, however, she 
saved herself by slipping through his fingers in the form of a Wren. Hence 
every New Year’s Day (when a spell condemned her to reappear in the same 
form) Wrens are remorselessly hunted down and destroyed by the men and boys 
of the island. It is curious, however, that these cruel practices do not seem to 
prevail amongst the Scotch section of the Celtic race. In that country the popular 
rhyme protects the little bird by putting it under the care of the Virgin— 
“ Malisons, malisons mair than ten, 
Who harries the Ladye of Heaven’s Wren.” 
The Golden-Crested Wren (Regulus cristatus), figured in our second engraving, 
well merits a few words. It is a social, friendly bird, generally seen in fir-woods, 
