LAND BIRDS. 669 



Trombley took a specimen at Petersburg in tlie spring of 1879, and saw 

 a second one on ]\Iay 7, 8 and 9, 1889. The following year (1890) he 

 noted three specimens on April 16, a single one on the 18th, and the same 

 or another individual on the 20th, but he reported these as stragglers 

 and does not think that they nested. In May 1892 a pair was seen re- 

 peatedly near Petersburg, and as late as June 30, and Mr. Trombley is 

 confident that they nested there. Since this time he has not seen the 

 species, nor has it been reported by any other observer in the county. 

 It was included in Dr. Miles' list of 1860 on the authority of Professor 

 Fox who is said to have taken a specimen at Grosse Isle, Wayne county, 

 many years before. It occurs in Stockwell's list (Forest and Stream, Vol. 

 VIII, No. 17, p. 261), and Covert in his Forest and Stream list reported 

 one as taken at Ann Arbor, Washtenaw county, June 4, 1872. The more 

 recent records are as follows: One taken at Ann Arbor, December 14, 

 1890, one by P. A. Taverner, near Detroit, August 11, 1906 (Auk, XXIV, 

 1907, 147), a nest and five young found by A. D. Tinker, near Ann Arbor, 

 June 20, 1909 (Auk, XXVI, 1909, 434), and five individuals, probably 

 belonging to one family, found by Norman A. Wood, on Sand Point, 

 Huron county, August 13-26, 1908. Mr. Samuel Spicer of Goodrich, 

 Genesee county has in his collection a mounted specimen of an adult in 

 perfect plumage, killed at Goodrich, in spring, about 1897; and states that 

 another was heard singing at about the same time and place. 



The species is included in several Canadian lists, but is certainly not 

 common even in southern Ontario. Mcllwraith records one shot in the 

 town of Mt. Forest in February 1891, and Mr. N. B. Klugh took a young 

 male on Pt. Pelee, Essex county, Ontario, September 5, 1905, and on the 

 following day Mr. P. A. Taverner of Detroit took another and Mr. Klugh 

 secured two fledglings, both males. Besides these an adult bird was seen 

 but not taken (Auk, XXIII, 1906, 105). 



In. its habits the Carolina Wren much resembles our other wrens, being 

 noisy, musical, nervous, and extremely active. It is seldom quiet for a 

 moment, but flits from place to place, diving into the thickets or piles 

 of brush or dodging about among stumps and fallen trees, all the while 

 uttering its peculiar call-notes and occasionally giving a snatch of song. 

 On occasions it sings beautifully and repeatedly from some conspicuous 

 perch, but is very suspicious and easily disturbed, after which it is not 

 likely to sing again for a long time. According to Chapman: "In addi- 

 tion to his peculiar calls he possesses a variety of loud ringing whistles 

 somewhat similar in tone to those of the Tufted Titmouse and Cardinal, 

 and fully as loud if not louder than the notes of the latter. The more 

 common ones resemble the syllables whee-adel, whee-adel, whee-adcl tea- 

 kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle." 



The nest is built usually in a hollow fence-post, a decayed stump, a 

 woodpecker's hole, or occasionally a bird-box or some cavity about a 

 I)arn or shed, but the bird is not often familiar enough to nest about build- 

 ings. The nest is very bulky and consists of a great variety of materials 

 in which are mingled not only twigs and straws, but moss, feathers, leaves, 

 hair, etc. The eggs are four to six, creamy or pinkish-white, thinly 

 sprinkled with reddish brown clots, and average .75 by .58 inches. 



The food of this wren is similar to that of the other meml)ers of the 

 family, but consists almost entirely of insects, many of them doubtless 

 harmful. 



