152 The Wren. 

We all know the names of Cock Robin and Jenny 
Wren, through the good old tales told to us by our 
nurses, These birds are therefore held sacred by 
children in England: a schoolboy will not take their 
eggs nor disturb their nest. This is not so, however, 
in the Isle of Man, and in some parts of Ireland, for 
a legend exists that “Once on a time there lived an 
enchantress who used her spells on the soldiers of 
Mona: at last a brave knight came to the rescue, 
and, when on the point of putting her to death, she 
suddenly metamorphosed herself into a wren, and 
popped through the doughty knight’s: fingers; but 
every year, in that island, it is said, she is bound to 
appear on Christmas Day in the form of a wren, 
with the sentence of death over her.” Consequently, 
on that day a great onslaught is made by ignorant 
boys and men, who hunt the lives of every one of 
these innocent birds they come across, and on St. 
Stephen’s Day they are strung and suspended from a 
bough of holly, and carried through the island, with a 
rude song. Inthe southern parts of Ireland a legend 
still exists of a Wren settling upon the drum, and 
