416 NOTES ON THE 



THRYOTHORUS BEWICKII (Audubon). (719.) 

 BEWICK'S WREN. 



Arrives in Minnesota generally about the 20th of April, but 

 varies materially with the seasons. It is a very sweet singer, 

 although not equal to the House or the Carolina Wren. 



About the 20th of May, but not infrequently somewhat 

 earlier, they build their nests in stumps, knot holes in the 

 trees, hollow logs, etc., of the same materials as the other 

 wrens employ, and lay from five to seven white eggs, speckled 

 with light shades of brown, which are most numerous about 

 the larger end. While this species occasionally visits our 

 shrubbery and berry bushes of our gardeners, it is essentially 

 a denizen of the forest, especially the brushland borders, in 

 the vicinity of streams of water and lakes. Of the identity of 

 this species there is not the shadow of a question, but of its 

 relative representation there is considerable. As far back as 

 1874, it was not unusual in my experience to bag two or three 

 of them in a few hours general collection, and subsequently in 

 company with Mr. W. L. Tiffany (to whom I have elsewhere 

 referred) spend several hours in extensive comparisons. Few 

 of my correspondents report this wren, and I cannot regard it 

 as quite as common as I believed it would be found. It is, 

 however, a well represented and fairly distributed species in 

 many of the timbered sections. They retire southward by the 

 10th of September in ordinary seasons. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill shorter than head; tail longer than wings, much grad- 

 uated; upper parts rufous brown, beneath plumbeous white; a 

 white streak over the eye, the feathers edged above with 

 brown; exposed surface of wings and innermost tail feathers 

 closely barred with dusky; remaining tail feathers mostly 

 black, barred or blotched with white at tips, and on the whole 

 outer web of the exterior feather and under tail coverts. 



Length, 5.50; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.50. 



Habitat, eastern United States to Plains. 



TROGLODYTES AEDON Vieillot. (721.) 

 HOUSE WREN. 



Notwithstanding the tendency of the systematists in the 

 literature of American Ornithology to keep the typical House 

 Wren restricted to more eastern limits, I am able to assure them 

 that it is a regular summer resident of Minnesota. I have so 



