THE AMERICAN HOUSE-WREN. 



201 



THE AMERICAN HOUSE-WREN. 



I lit \ t I I I IN . tl 1 



This lively, cheerful, capricious, and well known little minstrel, says 

 Nuttall, is only a summer resident in the United States. Its northern 



migrations extend to 

 Labrador. But it 

 resides and. rears its 

 young principally in 

 the Middle States. 

 My friend, Mr. Say, 

 also observed this 

 species near Pem- 

 bino, beyond the 

 sources of the 

 Mississippi, in the 

 Western wilderness 

 of the 49th degree 

 of latitude. It is 

 likewise said to be 

 an inhabitant of 

 Surinam within the 

 tropics, where its 

 delightful melody has gamed it the nickname of the Nightingale. 

 This region, or the intermediate country of Mexico, is probably the 

 winter quarters of our domestic favorite. In Louisiana it is unknown 

 even as a transient visitor, migrating apparently to the east of the 

 Mississippi, and sedulously avoiding the region generally inhabited 

 by the Carolina Wren. It is a matter of surprise how this, and some 

 other species, with wings so short and a flight so fluttering, are ever 

 capable of arriving and returning from such distant countries. At 

 any rate, come from where he may, he makes his appearance in the 

 middle States about the 12th or 15th of April, and is seen in New 

 England in the latter end of that month or by the beginning of May. 

 They take their departure for the South towards the close of September, 

 or early in October, and are not known to winter within the limits of 

 the Union. 



Some time in the early part of May, our little social visitor enters 

 actively into the cares as well as pleasures which preside instinctively 

 over the fiat of propagation. His nest, from preference, near the hous(!, 

 is placed beneath the eaves, in some remote corner under a shed, out- 

 house, barn, or in a hollow orchard tree ; also in the deserted cell of 

 the Woodpecker, and , when provided with the convenience, in a 

 wooden box" along with the Martins and Blue-birds. He will make 

 his nest even la ^n old hat, nailed up, and perforated with a hole for 

 entrance, or the skull of an Ox stuck upon a pole ; and Audubon saw 

 one deposited in the pocket of a broken down carriage. So pertina- 

 cious is the House Wren in thus claiming the convenience and pro- 

 tection of human society, that according to Wilson, an instance once 



