THE WINTER WREN 



Wren Family — Troglodytidoe 



Length: About 4 inches; the same size as the golden-crowned 

 kinglet. 



Male and Female: Similar in appearance to the house wren, 

 but smaller and with a shorter tail; body brown, 

 mostly barred with fine, black lines; light line over 

 the eye; under parts darker than those of the house 

 wren, with a buff wash across throat and breast. 



Song: A very beautiful song, unusually loud for so small a 

 bird. Those fortunate enough to hear it are extrav- 

 agant in their praise. Mr. Eaton calls it the sweet- 

 est melody that he and his associates heard in the 

 Adirondacks, excelling even the thrushes. 



Habitat: Brush heaps, thickets in woods, along streams, and 

 in wild rocky places. 



Range: Breeds from southern Canada to Minnesota, Wiscon- 

 sin, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts, through 

 the Alleghanies to North Carolina; winters from 

 about its southern breeding limit to Texas and north- 

 ern Florida. 



EATON says: "During the migration, this little 

 wren is commonly observed about the shrubbery of 

 our lawns, parks, and the edges of woods, when disturbed 

 retreating to the recesses of some brush pile or under the 

 damp edges of the stream bank. A few remain through- 

 out the winter in western and central New York, and it is 

 fairly common as a winter resident in the southeastern 

 portion of the State, but in the principal breeding range 



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