This is the wren, troglodytes, in its “demoniacal aspect,” to use the language of Gubernatis. In its benign aspect, “the tiny woodland dwarf,” “the wren with little quill,” is a bird of some sanctity:
“Malisons, malisons mair than ten
Wha harries the queen of heaven’s hen.”
for, as everybody knows:
“The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty’s cock and hen.”
And it is in its connection with that other famous bird of December, the robin-redbreast, that the wren, “Jenny Wren,” is, perhaps, most popular.
Indeed, it is almost impossible to think of one without the
