68 



KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



House Wren 



6. House Wren (721. Troglddytes cledon). — A dark-browu 

 wren, with the tail decidedly more reddish than the back. The 

 wings, tail, sides, and flanks 

 are fully cross-barred with 

 darker lines, and the under 

 parts are whitish. As its 

 name indicates, it likes to 

 live near human habita- 

 tions, returning to the same 

 place year after year, and 

 building its nest in the same 

 hole in a log, bird box, or 

 chink in an outhouse. It is active, irritable, noisy, and coura- 

 geous. It is resident in the Southern States, and is there so 

 numerous in winter as to overflow the settled regions, and so 

 is found in the forests miles from any house. 



Length, 5; wing, 2 (1;-2J); tail, Ijj ; tarsus, J ; cuhnen, J. Eastern 

 United States north to southern Ontario, and west to Indiana and Louis- 

 iana. It winters from South Carolina southward. 'I'lic Western House 



Wren (721''. T. a. azte- 

 cits) is a variety of this 

 species with less of red 

 on the upper parts, and 

 the back and rump are 

 very distinctly barred 

 with blackish. As a 

 whole, it is a lighter 

 colored bird. Interior 

 United States from near 

 the Pacific, eastward to 

 Illinois. 



7. Winter Wren 

 (722. Troglodytes hi- 

 efiuMis). — A small, 

 very short - tailed, 

 c in nam on- brown 

 wren, with more 

 brownish under parts than any other species of ours. In its 

 breeding range of the north, it is a very sweet singer ; in other 



Wiflter Wren 



