246 
CERTHIADiE. 
seen on some of our bleakest and most unsheltered dis¬ 
tricts. We saw it on some of the most sterile heaths of 
Shetland ; the only support for its nest being the bank of 
some mountain gully; its only shelter, the overhanging 
sod. 
Notwithstanding the number of eggs which the Wren 
has been said to lay, I have never succeeded in finding 
more than eight, and rarely more than seven, in the same 
nest. They are usually less spotted than the Figure, 
and are not unfrequently quite white. 
Ornithologists differ as to the inside of the Wren's 
nest; some maintain that it is thickly lined with feathers, 
whilst others deny that it lias any in its composition. I 
have found it both with and without such lining, but 
think that it is most frequently finished with a few 
feathers. 
