In Mr. Rennie's edition of Montagu's Dictionary, and also in his
"Architecture of Birds," after copying what I have said on the
subject of Wrens' nests being lined with feathers, he says:--
"There can be no doubt, I apprehend, of these supposed cock-nests
being nothing more than the unfinished structures of paired birds;
otherwise the story would require the support of strong evidence
to render it credible." Mr. Rennie afterwards goes on to say that
in two instances he had seen nests which had about half-a-dozen
feathers interwoven into the linings with hair; and Mr. Jennings,
if I recollect aright, as I have not the work to refer to at
present, says that Wrens don't line their nests with anything but
moss, and he thinks Montagu is in error when he says they are
lined with feathers. Along with this I send you three or four
Wrens' nests, which you will perceive have abundance of feathers
in the inside; and although the Wren will occasionally use cows'
hair along with the feathers, yet I am persuaded from the
localities in which I have met with them, that cows' hair has been
used because feathers were not to be found; but when the nests are
in the vicinity of a rookery, a farm-yard, or any other locality
where feathers are abundant, the Wrens will use them exclusively.
What the "strong evidence" must be which will convince Mr. Rennie
about cock-nests, I don't know; but I know of a dozen of these
nests at the present moment, several of which have remained in the
state in which they were left in the middle of April. Other nests
found about the same time have now young ones in them. I doubt not
these nests are occasionally used for breeding in: for instance,
if the first nest of a Wren be taken, or if it breed a second
time, it will occasionally take possession of a cock-nest; as I
have sometimes found that after remaining in the same unfinished
state for several weeks, they have afterwards been fitted up with
a lining, and bred in.
Mr. Rennie asserts that Montagu is wrong when he says that the
Wren always adapts its materials to its locality. Although it
certainly is not always the case, yet so very generally is it so,
that I think it is not surprising that Montagu made this
assertion.
Thus, if a Wren build in a haystack, the front of the nest is
generally composed of the hay from the stack; if it be built in a
bush by the side of a river, and (which is frequently the case)
below flood mark, it is generally covered on the outside with the
rubbish which has been left there by the flood; and if it build in
a mossy stump, the front of the nest is composed of the dark-
coloured moss which grows there. (May 22, 1832.)
Along with my last letter, I sent some Wrens' nests lined with
feathers, and I could easily have increased them to a dozen of the
same sort, only I did not wish to deprive so many of my little
favourites of their eggs and young. Every day convinces me more
decidedly, that I am right both with regard to the lining of the
Wrens' nests, and as to the cock-nests also. The nests I sent you
will prove the former, and I know of at least twenty instances of
the latter, in nests which I have known of all through the spring,
from April to the present time, which have remained in the same
unfinished state, although they are not forsaken, as I have found
the birds in them, in several instances, when I have examined
them. I found one of these nests on the 10th of April, under a
bank on the side of the river; and I examined it repeatedly
through April and May, and always found it in the same state,
although there was always a pair of Wrens about, and I could find
no other nest; yet I am sure there was another, for in the
beginning of this month (June) there were some young Wrens, which
had evidently only just come out of the nest; and there were only
two or three bushes grew thereabouts, so that it is not probable
they had come from any other quarter, but the bushes were filled
with dead leaves, and other rubbish brought down by the flood.
However, when I heard them, I looked out for another nest, as I
believe (notwithstanding what Montagu says, that there are few
birds, if any, that would produce a second lot of eggs if the
first were unmolested) that most of the small birds which are
early breeders build a second time the same year, even when they
succeed in rearing the first brood. I have had proof of this (if
anything can be considered proof, except marking the birds), in
the Throstle, the Blackbird, the Wren, the Redbreast, and the
Hedge Sparrow, whose second nests may be found contiguous to the
first; and in point of time, this always happens just when the
first brood have left the nest. The cock-bird, too, who had been
silent whilst his young were unfledged, begins to sing again, and
throwing off the anxious and care-beset manners of a parent, again
assumes that of a bridegroom. But to return to Wrens' nests. I
found one within ten yards of the one I had known of since the
10th of April, lined, and ready for an egg. As I was anxious to
prove what I had so long believed, I pulled out this nest,
thinking that the old bird was ready for laying a second lot of
eggs; and that when I had destroyed this, as she had no other nest
ready, she would probably take up with the cock-nest.
As it was half a mile from my house, I did not visit it again
until the 16th of June, and was then delighted to find the old
bird sitting on six or seven eggs in the cock-nest, which had
remained so long unoccupied. I believe that in this instance there
is very little lining (fur, feathers, &c.) in the nest, although I
should be sorry to examine it minutely until the young have left
it; but I consider it an exception to the general rule, inasmuch
as I believe the bird was ready to lay when I pulled out the other
nest. As she would have to find another with as little delay as
possible, she would not have time to embellish the inside in the
same manner as she probably would have done if she had had more
time.
On examining another Wrens' nest a few evenings ago, I found the
young ones had flown, and as there was a cock-nest in some wrack
left by the river in a bush a few yards off, I gave it a shake to
see if the old ones had taken possession of it for another brood;
and I was surprised to see one, and then a second young one come
flying out, and a third putting out its head to reconnoitre.
Whether the whole brood was there I don't know, as I did not
disturb them further. As I had examined this nest only ten days
before, when it had not an egg in it, I was at first at a loss to
account for these young ones; but I have now no doubt they were
the young from the adjoining nest, which had taken up their
quarters for the night in the new house. But how had they learnt
the way? Young birds generally roost where night finds them, and
if I had found only one, I should not have been surprised, but to
find at least three, probably six or seven, in a nest where I am
certain they were not bred, was something new to me. I went
several times in the evening after this, but never found them; I
suppose the fright I gave them deterred them from lodging there
again.
The editor of "Loudon's Magazine," in a paragraph appended to this
article, says: "We have examined the Wrens' nests sent; their
staple materials are moss, feathers, and hair. Into the moss on
the exterior of the nest are woven a more or less perfect but
feeble frond or two, and separate pinnae as well of Aspidium
Filix-Mas, and leaves of apple, elm, and oak trees. Interiorly
cows' hair is not scarce, and is partly inwoven with the moss and
laces it together, and partly mingled with the feathers; a horse-
hair or two are also observable. The feathers in each nest,
apparently those of domestic fowls, are numerous enough to fill
the hollow of the hand when the fingers are so folded over as not
to much compress the feathers."
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