Nesting Box Competition
On the subject of wrens, a strange tale is told me of the long duel between a pair of tits and wrens for the possession of a new nesting-box. The tits, especially the cock bird, had spent a number of weeks in smoothing the rather rough hole, and had not begun to build when the wrens appeared, and began at once to bring nesting material. This was removed many times (chiefly by the hen bird) before the wren finally gave up the competition. I have known tits to eject a foreigner's egg from their selected nesting-box, but how the feat was accomplished it is difficult to conjecture. The ejected eggs lay unbroken on the soft ground beneath. It is claimed on behalf of that rare bird, the marsh warbler, that it is one of the few species that detects the cuckoo's egg and throws it out.
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