672 



MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE 



black, the outer ones with white lips and white spots on inner webs; under (ail-coverts 

 strongly barred with black and white; a white line over the eye from nostril to nape; 

 under parts grayish-white; flanks brownish. Sexes alike; seasonal changes slight. 

 Length 5 to 5.50 inches; wing 2 to 2.25; tail 2.10 to 2.40 



305. House Wren. Troglodytes aedon aedon Vicill. (721) 



Synonyms: Brown Wren, Conunon Wren, Wood Wren, Stump Wren, Short-tailed 

 House Wren, Jenny Wren. — Troglodytes ffdon, Vieill., 1807. — Sylvia domestica, Wils., 

 180S. — Troglodytes americanus, Aud., 1834. — Troglodytes aedon, llidgw., 1887, and most 

 subsequent writers 



Figure HO. 



Known readily by the small size, jerky movements, and tail carried 

 erect over the back, in connection with the brown color of the upper parts, 

 brighter rusty on rump and tail, and the soiled whitish under parts; the 

 wings, tail and sides usually showing fine blackish bars. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States and southern Ontario, west to 

 Indiana and Louisiana. Resident from the middle districts southward. 



The House Wren is an abundant summer resident over the greater part 

 of Michigan, but is somewhat local in its distribution, being entirely un- 

 known in small areas 

 here and there, but 

 abundant in other dis- 

 tricts but a few miles 

 away. We have seen it 

 personally, or had it 

 reported by reliable 

 observers, from all parts 

 of the state, including 

 the entire south shore 

 of Lake Superior. Ordi- 

 narily it is found in close 

 association with man, at 

 least during the nesting 

 season, but it is one of 

 the characteristic birds 

 of the waste lands of the 

 north, where the timber 

 has been cut off and fire 

 has swept over the face 

 of the land, leaving 

 numerous dead trees and 

 charred stumps in which 

 the Wren delights to nest 



Fig. 146. House Wren. Courtesy of Biological Survey, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1895. 



In such places it is often abundant at a distance 

 of many miles from any human habitation and its sprightly and incessant 

 song is one of the cheering features amid the desolate surroundings. 



It arrives in the southern part of the state from the middle of April to 

 the first of May, the earliest date given by ]\Ir. Tromliley at Petersburg, 

 Monroe county, being April 15, 1894, and the earhest date given by Mr. 

 Wood at Ann Arbor, lAlarch 13, 1887. This, however, is an unusually 

 early date, and Mr. Wood gives the average as the second week in April, 

 which is much earlier than the records for the rest of the state would seem 

 to warrant. In Ingham county the bird rarely appears before the 20th 



