Wrens And Their Nesta

'Únele Horace, do, please, come out íere and look. It is juat too funny. When papa was here last Summer he ef t a pair cf old boots, and this Spring some one threw them out on the pile of rails behind the barn. I was around ;here a few minutes ago, and I found -hat two little birds had gone into one jf the boot3 and built a nest there. I ooked in, and I saw the nest and three eggs. Do come out and teil me what airds they are. Just now one of them scolded at me very much because he thought T went too close to the boot." "I think I can teil you before going what the bird is, for there is only one whic'i would fairly be apt to adopt the boot as a place for hwusekeepiug. The birds are probably wrens, Bennie, but we will go and see." As we were passing around toward the rear of the barn, I heard, sure 3nough, the song of a wren from the branches of a eherrv-tree which we passed, and when we reached the 'boot," out flew the mate of the songster, and without going f urther than the nearest fence post, she stopped and began to scold us at a f urions rate. "That is just the way she went on jefore, Uncle Horace. What a spiteful little thing she is!" "Oh, no, not spiteful, Bennie; she is ODly standing up for her rights. She evidently thinks tfciat the boot belongs :o her, and that we have no business aere." "But is it notqueer that they should take such a place for theirnest? An old boot!" "No, itisnot queer, Ben; it is precise.ly the soit of thing you niight expect. When you mentioned the place of the nest, i feit at once tolerably sure that a pair "of wrens must be the auilders, lor thoy seem to have a special fancy for old places. When we go into the house again I will show you Mr. Audubon's plate of this species, and you will see taai he represents them as having built their nest in an old toni ha: which had been hung on d branch of a tree. I saw a wren's nest once in a pickle jar, and at another time a pair had taken possession of a tomato can which somt! boys had hung on a fence stake and used as a mark for shooüng till it was full of snot-holes. They often go into empty boxs, and it is curious how much work they will do in fllling up a box when it is too large for their little íest. I recollect one case where a Kiir of wrens took a fancy to a soap mx which was more than a foot long, and rather than leave ary part of it vacant they actually worked away till hey had piled grass, etc, into it clear down to the very hole by which they eutered, and there they built their íest right down close to the entrance. Tnese were all American wrens; but here is a beautif ui drawing of another species never seen ia this country." "Oh, Uncle Horace, what a cuuning little fellpw, one up above and one iooking out of that hole in the nest! Tou say he never comes to tbis country ; where does he live, then?" "That drawing represents the conimon wren of England and of France., Bennie. In fact, the bird is found in most parts of southern and western Europe, and is just as familiar in its liabit of coming about houses there as our wren is here. They all of them seem to like the idea of being where people are, andyet they are timid and retiring little things after all. The genus to which they belong is called in the books Troglodytes, which you must pronounce m tour byllables, Hot three. It sounds like a harsh name for such a delicate bird; it means a dweller in caves." "Why, Uncle Horace, yoa did not say anything about their living in caves." "No, I did not, Bennie, nor dol think they ever go in caves. iS till, the nami is a very correct one, as applying to their habits. If you will carelully watch thij pair out here behind the barn, you will see for yourself. There is no nook or corner vbout there which you will not see them prying into." "Here comes one of them now, Uncle Horace, out through the stone fence. He is going to scold U3 fot being here to watch him. You need not mind it, little fellow: we sluil act hurt you. But what makes h in kee p his tail held up so straight? Some of the time he a'most lays it over on his back." "I was about to cali your attenlion tothat very thing. Taat is one of their singular peculidritiee. All of this tribe of the wrei.s have that curious habit. By 'this tribe' I mean those species which so much resemble tke common wren of Europe or the house wren of Americ-i, for there are others which are quite distinct from them, and which do not curry their tails in that manner. Now we have hei e, in our Northern and E:istern S'ates especially, another species vvhicli commonly comes to us only in the Winter instead of baing here, as this bird is, during the Summer. Though he lives more in the woüds, and does not very often come about houses, yet they tro very similar to the house wreu, and you would notice them at once because of this habit of carrylng cheir tail erect; and it would be the same with the wood wren, and abo with the quecr little fellows who live in the marshes, the marsh wrens." "And then are there others which are not like them - not what you cali of cue same 'tribe'? "Yes, in our Southern States, and even no f urther south thac Delaware, we flnd a species decidedly larger than our house wren, and having no resernblance to it as far as familiarity witb men and houses is concerned. It is the great Carolina wren, and from seeing ihis species now before us you would scarcely imagine that to be a wren at all. He Hves iu the woods, he carries liis tail as a robiD or a bluebird does. and his song is not like the few trilling and twittering notes of the house wren. He pours out a flood of music that is similar to that of the thrush ; you can scarcely believe when you see him that so much power of notes can come from a body so small." "I see in this drawing, Uncle Horace, that the European species make a nest with only a hole iu tho side. I have seen a robin's next, and several swallow's nests, and sparrows' nests, and they all open on the top like a cup, thev were not covered." "No, that is very true, Ben. That is the way in which the gteatest number of birds build. But many of the wrens have the propensity to arch their nests over. The one in the drawing is represented correctly. They always seem determined to have an arch, even if it it is not needed - if there is an arch there already. One pair, I recollect, built their nest inside a small gourd shell. The top of the shell arcbed over so close that the back ef the bird as she sat in the nest almost touched the shell, but she had not been contented without having an arch of her own, and she had actually made one no thicker than fine paper. It seemed to me that it was only one layer of fine fibres, hair, grass, etc. But there it was, an arcfi, and she was doubtlesa contented." "What did you mean by the marsh wrensbeing queer little fellowsV' "They are queer fellows.sure enough. Queer in their nests, queer in their song, queer in the places they choose for their homes. They rre of two species, quite closely resembling each other, and yet one will never live where the water is fresh, and the other will only live w riere it is fresh. The fiist isseen only on the salt rnarshes, and yet its habits are almost the same as those of the fresh-water bird. They build nests almost alike, and yet they never put them in similar places. In goiug across a salt marsh you oíten gee a tuft of the tall, coarse grasses, of which the s.tems have been woven and bound together into a sort of column, and then in their top, two or three feet frora the ground, is a large coarse ball of long lea ves and fibres, ot the size of a child's head. This is the nesi of the marsh wren. Now you may cross the fresh-water marshes all day long, and you will see no such tbing, and yet you will see numbers of the short-biiled marsh wiens, and you will pass many of their nests, and the nests will look almust exactly like those perched up on the tops of the saltwater grasses, but you will not see them unless you know where to looK. Why? Because instead of being away up on the grasses they are placed at the roots. Can you teil why they diiïer so in their nest building? 1 cannot. Each nest, of eitner species, is a coarse bal!, as already mentioned, with a round hole on the side, and inside is the real nest, a beautiful, smooth and comfortable place for the bird and her young." "Is the nest like this one in the drawing? T.'jís has a hole in the side." "Soinewhat like it, but it is built comrnonly of coarser mateiials. I mention also that marsh wrens of eitker the salt or fresh water species were peculiar in their notes, for you can 3carcely cali it a song. It is a series of short sounds, seeming almost iike the bubble of air through water- somewhat like the noise which your feet make in stepping on the marshy ground, and et it has a musical effect