232 
Birds. 
eggs of a pale reddish-brown, sprinkled with spots of 
a darker colour. This bird sings sweetly, and so like 
the nightingale, that in Norfolk it is called the mock 
nightingale. White observes, that it has usually a full, 
sweet, deep, loud, and wild pipe, yet the strain is of 
short continuance, and its motions desultory ; but when 
it sits calmly, and earnestly engages in song, it pours 
forth very sweet but inward melody ; and expresses a 
great variety of modulations, superior perhaps to any 
of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. While it 
sings, its throat is greatly distended. 
THE WEEN. {Troglodytes vulgaris.) 
" Fast by my couch, congenial guest, 
The Wren lias wove her mossy nest ; 
From busy scenes and brighter skies 
To lurk with iimocenee she flies ; 
Her hopes in safe repose to dwell, 
Nor aught suspects the sylvan cell." 
T. Warton. 
The Wren is a very small bird : but, as if nature had 
intended to compensate the want of size and bulk in 
the individuals, by multiprying them to a greater extent, 
this little bird is one of the most prolific of the feathered 
tribe, its nest containing often upwards of eighteen eggs, 
of a whitish colour, and not much bigger than a pea. 
The male and female enter by a hole contrived in the 
middle of the nest, and which, by its situation and size, 
is accessible only to themselves. The Wren weighs no 
more than three drachms. Its notes are very sweet, and 
rival those of the robin redbreast, in the middle of 
winter, when the coldness of the weather has condemned 
