VVKEN. 
U5 
I have endeavoured as much as possible to make the 
place where I am residing (a portion of the old Oatlands 
park) attractive to every species of bird; and, much to 
my delight, have met with the especial approbation of 
Kitty Wren, which, though neither brilliant in colour nor 
yet in song, is one of a trio which are almost household 
birds, and help us by their cheerful presence through the 
dreary winter months. I have planted a number of 
junipers, and there is scarcely one without a nest, which 
is so incorporated with the shrub, that I have sometimes 
had much difficulty in finding the hole of entrance, fear¬ 
ful lest by moving the branches for the purpose, I might 
disarrange the nest. 
No bird is so jealous of the discovery of its nest as the 
Wren. Amongst a great number of nests which I have 
found in the progress of building, I have never known 
one proceeded with after having been once discovered 
and touched, it being quite impossible to thrust the finger 
into the tiny hole of entrance without disarranging the 
neatness and beautiful symmetry of its form. This I 
have always found to cause its abandonment by the 
owner, and may readily account for the number of un¬ 
finished nests, which we used at school to call “cocks' 
nests," supposing that they were built by the male bird 
for its own particular abode. 
When incubation is proceeded with, and the eggs have 
been sat upon for some time, the Wren, like all other 
birds, becomes much more attached to them, and is not 
then so easily driven to forsake them. The Rev. W. D. Fox 
lias communicated to me a most remarkable instance of 
this attachment in one which would suffer its nest to be 
taken in the hand and examined, remaining the while 
quietly seated on its eggs. 
The Wren is a solitary, hardy little bird, and may be 
