24 MARCH 1906, Page 17

NATURE STUDY AND MODERN VERSE. [TO TES EDITOR Or THE

"SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I think the writer of the charming article in your last issue on "Nature Study and Modern Verse" is wrong in saying that Wordsworth is "quaintly mistaken" in writing

about wrens' nests thus :— "The very nest In which this child of spring was reared Is warmed through winter by her feathery breast."

For I have always understood that wrens, unlike most birds, do use their old nests as places of shelter in the winter. I have just consulted two standard works on birds—viz., those by Howard Saunders and F. 0. Morris—and both writers mention this habit of wrens alluded to by Wordsworth.—I am, St. Albans.