670 MICHIGAN JUKI) IJFE. 



TKCHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult : Above rusty-brown, darkest on head, brightest on rump; below soiled whitish, 

 more oi' k'ss tinged with rusty on the hinder belly; under tail-coverts whitish, crossed by 

 four or five heavy black bars; a distinct white stripe over and behind the eye, often bordered 

 with an imj)erfect line of dusky spots; a broad brown streak running backward from eye 

 between the white streak and the whitish throat; wings and tail brown like back, narrowly 

 barred witli brownish-black; middle wing-coverts with a few white lines and spots. Sexes 

 alike; little or no seasonal change. 



Length 5.25 to 6 inches; wing 2.20 to 2.50; tail 1.80 to 2.35. 



304. Bewick's Wren. Thryomanes bewicki bewicki (And.). (719) 



Synonyms: Long-tailed House Wren, Song Wren. — Troglodytes bewickii. And., 

 1827, Nutt., 1832. — Thryothorus bewicki, Bonap., 1838. — Thryothorus bewickii, Baird, 

 1859, A. O. U. Check-list, 188(5, and most subsequent authors. — Tliryomanes bewicki, 

 Ridgw., 1877, A. O. U. Committee, 1899. 



Only a little smaller than the Carolina Wren, which it resembles closely 

 in general appearance, though decidedly grayer and paler in color. More- 

 over, the outer tail-feathers are mainly clear black, conspicuously spotted 

 and tipped with white. In habits the bird closely resembles the House 

 Wren and frequently nests in the same localities, in fact, sometimes re- 

 placing the House Wren in towns and villages. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States, west to the eastern border of 

 the Plains and eastern Texas : rare east of the Alleghanies north of Maryland 

 and Delaware; north irregularly in the Mississippi Valley to southern 

 Minnesota. Migratory only along the northern border of its range. 



This is another rare wren which has been taken at only three or four 

 points in the state and apparently is never common. It is possible that, 

 as some observers believe, it is extending its range northward, but there 

 seems to have been little or no change in the last dozen years. The species 

 is included in Stockwell's Forest and Stream list on the authority of a 

 specimen said to have been taken at Niles, INIichigan (perhaps by BaiTon). 

 Dr. Gibbs took a fine male at Kalamazoo May 5, 1877, which was identified 

 by Ridgway, and is now in the Agricultural College collection (catalog 

 No. 5798). Dr. Gibbs states that a few others, perhaps as many as five, 

 had been seen or shot in Kalamazoo during the four years previous. Covert 

 records one as taken at Ann Arbor, June 3, 1878, and Trombley reports 

 one seen April 15 and 16, 1894, and one May 8, 1897, both at Petersburg, 

 Michigan. 



The most recent record for the species is that by Leon J. Cole, who found 

 it nesting at Grand Rapids and gives the following facts with regard to 

 its occurrence: 



"In the spring of 1894 I had an excellent opportunity to observe a pair 

 of Bewick's Wrens at Grand Rapids. I was not then acquainted with the 

 bird, and no specimen was secured; but my description, written at the 

 time, leaves no doul)t of its identity. My first notes were written on May 

 5 of that year, Avhen a single bird was observed carrying nesting materials 

 to a cigar box which had been nailed to the inside wall of a shed in my 

 yard, with a small hole leading to the exterior. The nest building was 

 carried on in a rather desultory way until the 16th, and never in this 

 interval did I see more than the one bird, which I took to be a male. ]\Iuch 

 of his time w^as spent in singing and in flitting about in a small pile of 

 lum])er near by. For the nest he appeared to gather grass, bark from 

 neighboring grapevines, and also employed to a small extent some strings 



