Show QUEER settlement hornets and birds become friends and the former guard the lotters nests on the broad brown salt meadows that skirt the river jus aboe its mouth is a vast colony of marsh wrens relates the st paua dispatch in the acres of tangled talfe and cat tails the nests which are aa large as ones head arc so compacts constructed and so thoroughly thatched as to ba entirely weather tight As a rule the thrifty little chattering wrens prefer not to occupy a ladt year nest so there are aery season hun of empty ones they are not allowed to remain vacant long for there arc too many creatures seeking busl such brug quarters one specimen of field or meadow mice take possession posses of a great of them big spiders too loe to nest in the abandoned bab let like abodes and live for many seasons in them the most desirable tenants of all are the big black and vahit hornets by far the greater number of the old nests are inhabited by these fiery fellows and odd to relate they are the best of friends with the landlords As if by agreement with the wrens they keep a perpetual guard over the pew nests as well as those when they hi el beet dog an unconscious rait or ampe a biz digging boy or ao creature whatever approach the nest without warning a cohort of winged warriors will fall on the intruder anu flight is the only safe course the wrena seem full conscious of the value of such sentinels for they take cart to build their nests always very near to the old the birds are entirely defenseless and their nests being easily located on account of size and the noise made by alie wrens they have been in some localities entirely wiped out by egg collectors the boys have learned to give this colony a wide berth |