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
qua