WRENS. 71 



any great lengtli of time. Wilson says that in winter they are 

 " quite at home, even in the yards, gardens, and outhouses of 

 the city," ^^and also speaks of their singing while in Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



I have several times seen them in the forests of the White 

 Mountains, both in valleys and on hillsides, — in those grand, 

 dark, and cool forests, which have been left undisturbed by 

 man for years, if not forever, where the ground is covered with 

 fallen trees, with logs piled upon one another and covered 

 with rich moss, and where the damp soil, unparched by the 

 sun, in summer gives birth to innumerable ferns, of great 

 variety and extraordinary beauty. In such spots, their natural 

 haunts, the Wood Wrens seemed to be less shy than they com- 

 monly are during their migrations (which is not the case with 

 most birds), and I have there often watched them, creeping 

 agilely about with their long legs, and constantly " ducking " 

 their bodies in their peculiar manner, or singing from the top 

 of some brush-heap or some pile of tangled limbs. 



d. When traveling they are silent, but they have an ex- 

 quisite song, which I have often heard in their summer homes. 

 It is one which cannot fail to attract the attention of an obser- 

 vant person, though it may lead to a long search for the musi- 

 cian, before he is found. It is very lively and hurried, and the 

 notes seem to tumble over one another in the energy with 

 which they are poured out. They are full of power, though 

 many are shrill, and are garnished with many a gay trill ; in 

 some passages reminding one of the Canary-bird's song, though 

 infinitely finer. Their tone and spirit are wonderful, and alone 

 render them quite characteristic. Dr. Brewer speaks of the 

 " querulous note " of these birds, which I do not remember to 

 have ever heard.* 



One of the prettiest little scenes that I have ever seen in 

 nature was partly enacted by a Winter Wren, who, in nimbly 

 scrambling about a stone wall, nearly ran into a " chipmonk," 

 basking in the sun on the top of it. The surprise and pert- 



^^ Wilson wrote these words nearly * The call-note is a sharp tick re- 

 seventy years ago [about 1805], when peated several times in quick succes- 

 Philadelphia was a city of about eighty sion. — W. B. 

 thousand inhabitants. 



