The golden-crested wren and the common brown wren are both very
impatient of cold. In confinement, the least frost is immediately fatal
to them. In a wild state they keep themselves warm by constant active
motion in the day, and at night they secrete themselves in places where
the frost cannot reach them; but I apprehend that numbers do perish in
severe winters. I once caught half a dozen golden wrens at the beginning
of winter, and they lived extremely well upon egg and meat, being
exceedingly tame. At roosting time there was always a whimsical conflict
amongst them for the inside places, as being the warmest, which ended of
course by the weakest going to the wall. The scene began with a low
whistling call amongst them to roost, and the two birds on the extreme
right and left flew on the backs of those in the centre, and squeezed
themselves into the middle. A fresh couple from the flanks immediately
renewed the attack upon the centre, and the conflict continued till the
light began to fail them. A severe frost in February killed all but one
of them in one night, though in a furnished drawing-room. The survivor
was preserved in a little cage by burying it every night under the sofa
cushions; but having been one sharp morning taken from under them before
the room was sufficiently warmed by the fire, though perfectly well when
removed, it was dead in ten minutes. The nightingale is not much more
tender of cold than a canary bird. The golden-crowned wren very much
frequents spruce fir trees and cedars, and hangs its nest under their
branches; it is also fond of the neighbourhood of furze bushes, under
which it probably finds warm refuge from the cold. The brown wren is
very apt in frosty weather to roost in cow-houses, where the cattle keep
it warm.