188 WREN. 
bunch very little larger than the nest itself. ‘The door of 
this house was generally kept locked, the only mode of entrance 
at such times being beneath it, where there was barely room 
for the birds to pass through:—in all these instances the 
broods were reared in safety. He also mentions the circum- 
stance of a Wren having been detected in the act of purloiming 
materials from a Thrush’s nest, which was built in a bush 
adjoining its own tenement, then in course of erection, ‘the 
thefts being committed during the temporary absence of the 
owner in search of food for its young. Mr. R. Davis, Jun., 
of Clonmel, also communicated to him the curious fact of a 
family of young Wrens, which having left their own nest, 
and being probably in want of shelter, took possession of that 
of a Spotted Flycatcher, having apparently broken or thrown 
out all the eggs but one. Other situations for nests are the 
tops of honeysuckle and raspberry bushes, in the latter case the 
uest being made of the leaves of the tree; in fir trees, trellis- 
work, granaries, the branches of wall-fruit trees, and lofts, 
use being made occasionally of the holes previously tenanted 
by Sparrows and Starlings. One has been known built 
withinside that of a Swallow, and another in the old nest 
of a Thrush; one, again, in the newly-finished nest of a 
Martin, another on a branch of a yew tree among the foliage, 
and another in one of the hatches in the river at Winchester. 
Mr. Jesse relates a curious anecdote of a Wren’s nest, the 
owner of which being disturbed by some children watching 
it, blocked up the original entrance, and opened out a new 
one on the other side. 
Ten. days or a fortnight are occupied in the construction 
of the tenement, a few small stems of grass supported on the 
rugged bark or any rough part of the tree, if placed against 
one, indicating its commencement, and this is subsequently 
built on to, till all is completed. I have been favoured with 
specimens by W. Robson, Esq., of Pier Head, London, and 
W. Bridger, Esq., and a drawing of one by the Rev. kh. P. 
Alington. 
In the eighth volume of the ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ 
a correspondent narrates that in watching a pair of Wrens 
building their nest, he noticed that one confined itself entirely 
to the construction thereof, which it never left for a moment, 
whilst the other was ‘as incessantly passing and re-passing 
with materials for the structure. ‘These materials, however, 
this helper never once attempted to put into their places; 
