SKETCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
455 
determined tormentor; he hovers round the foe, uttering his peculiar 
Hr ring note, which seems not only a note of fear, but of chiding 
reprehension. 
His mode of courtship is one of the most amusing exhibitions that a 
naturalist can be witness to. No rational actor in pantomime can excel 
the wren;—urgent persuasion, the most tender vows, and the most 
seductive promises, are all exhibited in dumb show. Sometimes, 
indeed, he uses his own language of hope or flattery, but it is done in 
the softest whisper. The whole scene is truly ludicrous, for the little 
fellow swells and struts as majestically as the proudest turkey-cock! 
The nest, which is beautifully constructed, resembles an egg, the 
smallest end downwards. It is completely arched over, the entrance 
being in the side, a little below the springing of the arch, so that 
neither rain can fall nor eye see into the interior of the building. This 
form of the nest requires that it can only be made against some perpen¬ 
dicular body—as the ivy-covered side of a tree or wall, or abrupt bank 
of a road or river. 
The hen lays from ten to fourteen eggs before she sits, and hatches 
her brood in about fifteen days. The young are reared in this dark 
but secure cradle ; and it is wonderful to see the assiduity of the affec¬ 
tionate pair while rearing their tiny brood. From dawn until sunset 
their efforts are unceasing ; flying to and fro between the nest and the 
fruit or other trees in the neighbourhood, collecting small green cater¬ 
pillars ( TortrLv ?) which destroy the flowers and foliage of trees and 
flowering shrubs. The numbers thus collected and destroyed in the 
course of one day are incalculable, as at every return to the nest the 
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bills of the old ones are each charged with five or six writhing victims, 
which are quickly distributed to the importunate young. 
Another remarkable trait in the domestic economy of the common 
wren is their extreme attention to cleanliness. In such a close apart¬ 
ment, with so many helpless inmates crowded together, it might be 
supposed that it would soon become intolerable to the inhabitants ; but 
no such thing: the nest is kept as clean as a drawing-room by the 
instinctive cleanliness and tidy housewifery of the watchful parents. 
In very hard frosts the wren has a severe struggle to maintain exist¬ 
ence, as the insect tribes have then retired to their winter quarters, 
either in the crevices of the rough bark of trees, or holes in buildings, or 
other places of shelter. There the wren may be seen searching every 
crack and corner for winged insects and spiders, or their bags of eggs, 
which the wren appears very fond of ; so that in summer and winter 
this little bird is ever reducing the swarms of insects, some of which 
are so destructive to garden crops. If in that season the wren gains 
