490 Birds of Colorado 



Genus THRYOMANES. 



Bill slender and rather compressed ; tail very slightly exceeding 

 the wing in length ; outer and inner toe about equal ; plumage plain 

 brown, the tail chiefly dusky. 



Four species in North America, including Mexico. 



Baird's Wren. Thryomanes hewicki hairdi. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 719b — Colorado Records — Beckham 85, p. 140 

 {T. b. leucogaster) ; Thorne 87, p. 265 ; Cooke 97, pp. 120, 169, 221 

 Gihnan 07, p. 195 ; H. G. Smith 08, p. 190 ; Rockwell 08, p. 178 

 Warren 09, p. 17 ; Dille 09, p. 88 ; Cary 09, pp. 184, 311. 



Description. — Adult — Above plain brown with a greyish tinge, and 

 a few concealed white spots on the rump ; middle tail-feathers dusky- 

 grey, finely cross-barred with blackish ; lateral feathers dusky, with 

 white on the outer edges and tips ; a conspicuous white superciliary 

 streak ; below dirty white, the under tail-coverts narrowly barred with 

 black ; iris brown, bill horny, paler on the lower mandible ; legs homy- 

 brown. Length 4-75 ; wing 2-10 ; tail 2-20 ; culmen -55 ; tarsus -65. 



The sexes are alike, and the young birds hardly differ from the adults. 



Distribution. — The drier parts of south-western United States from 

 Colorado and Nevada south through Mexico to the State of Oaxaca, 

 probably a resident throughout its range. 



Baird's Wren is a rare bird in Colorado ; it has only been taken some 

 half-dozen times, and mixst be regarded as a scarce resident. It has 

 been most often met with in the southern half of the State, and was 

 observed by Christie breeding near Rouse Junction, in Huerfano co., 

 at the beginning of June (Cooke). Other records are : Colorado 

 Springs, May, 1879 (Aiken coll.), Pueblo (Beckham), Fort Lyon, April 

 27th (Thorne), Loveland (Cooke), Holly, Prowers co.. May 22nd 

 (H. G. Smith), Irwin's Ranch, Las Animas co., April 26th (Warren), 

 near Lily and Rangeley, September (Cary), Grand Junction, November 

 2nd (Rockwell), and Fort Lewis, a few noticed (Oilman). 



Habits. — ^Baird's Wren is most numerous in cedar 

 and pifion country in canons and dry aroyas. It has 

 a melodious song, sweeter and perhaps more musical 

 than that of the House- Wren. No one has described 

 the breeding habits in Colorado, but Coues found a nest 

 placed in the cavity of a rotten horizontal bough of a 

 cedar, about eight feet from the ground ; it was built 

 up of small cedar twigs and finely frayed bark of the same 



