144 CITIZEN BIRD 



THE ROCK WREN 



When the children had finished applauding Olive's 

 poetry — or was it really the Thrasher's own perform- 

 ance ? — the Doctor went on : 



" We have seen that the West has one sort of a 

 Thrasher in the sage-brush, and the East another, in 

 our own gardens. I also told you that these birds were 

 a kind of overgrown Wren ; and before we call upon 

 Mrs. Jenny Wren, I Avant to tell you about a bigger 

 relative of hers that Olive and I knew when we were in 

 the Rocky Mountains. He is called the Rock Wren — " 



"- Oh ! I know — because he lives in the Rocky 

 Mountains," said Dodo, clapping her hands at this 

 discovery. 



" Yes, that is partly the reason," resumed the Doc- 

 tor, after this interruption, "but those mountains are 

 very many, and varied in appearance, like most others : 

 covered in most places with pine trees, but including in 

 their recesses grassy meadows and silvery lakes. Some 

 parts of those mountains are the home of the Rock 

 Wren, but the little fellow is quite as well satisfied any- 

 where else in the western parts of the United States, 

 if he can find heaps of stones to play hide-and-seek in 

 with his mate, or great smooth boulders to skip up to 

 the top of and sing. So you see the mountains and 

 the Wrens are both named for the rocks. 



" Do these Wrens look like our kind and act that 

 way?" asked Nat. "Ours always make me think of 

 mice." 



" All kinds of Wrens are much alike," answered the 

 Doctor. '' They are small brownish birds with cocked- 



