Wren,
a bird called in Irish dreolin, much despised by the Irish for wrens perched on Irish drums when Irish soldiers were about to attack the Cromwellians. Such was the noise they made, says the legend, that the Cromwellians were roused, fell upon the Irish and slaughtered them. On Saint Stephen's Day (December 26th) sometimes called 'Boxing Day', bands of wren boys hunt the wren in retaliation for its betrayal of the Irish. An Irish folktale says that the wren became the king of the birds by flying higher than any other. It achieved this by perching on an eagle and, when the eagle had flown as high as it could, the wren flew a little higher.