The Bewick Wren {Thryomanes hewicki) 

 By W. F. Henninger 



Description.— .-^rfu//^; Above, dark olive-brown, or rufous-brown with an 

 olive tinge ; the rump with downy, concealed, white spots ; wings showing at least 

 traces of dusky barring — sometimes complete on tertials ; tail blackish or con- 

 cealed portions, distinctly and finely barred with blackish on exposed portions ; 

 the outer pairs of feathers white-tipped and showing white barring, incipient or 

 complete on terminal third ; a narrow" white superciliary stripe, and an indistinct 

 dark stripe through eye ; under parts grayish white, dark tinged on sides and 

 flanks ; under tail-coverts heavily barred with dusky ; bill dark brown above, 

 lighter below; culmen slightly decurved. Length 5.00-5.50 (127.-139.7); wing 

 2.08 (52.8); tail 2.01 (51.1); bill .53 (13.5). 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size ; known from House Wren by supercil- 

 iary stripe, and whiter under parts, mostly unbarred ; more deliberate in its 

 movements. 



Nest, anywhere in holes or crannies about buildings, posts, brush-heaps, etc. ; 

 of tw'igs, lined with grasses and miscellaneous soft materials ; not distinguishable 

 from those of 7. aedon. Eggs, 4-6, sometimes 7, white speckled — usually not so 

 heavily as in T. aedon — with cinnamon or rufous-brown, and purplish, uniformly, 

 or chiefly in wreath near larger end. Average size, .66x.48 (16.8x12.2). 



General Range. — 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. 



Bewick Wren today is the Wren of Southern Ohio. Since his arrival the 

 House Wren has "left the country" and has been entirely replaced by this better 

 songster and thriftier species. When the chilling blasts of February, 1899, howled 

 over the Scioto Valley bottoms and crept into every ravine of the hills, the ther- 

 mometer standing at 30 degrees below zero, when Goldfinches and Sparrows 

 dropped out of the sky, exhausted and frozen, the cheerful voice of the Bewick 

 Wren was loudly ringing from some favorite perch. How I had to envy him ! 

 While man and beast were seeking shelter from this cold, and the earth was 

 groaning under its burden of snow, he, undaunted, gay and light-hearted, was 

 singing in anticipation of the joyous springtime. And again when trees and 

 flowers bloom, or when midsummer's sun is blazing down in unabated fury, his 

 song greets us at our home. Not a voluble merry chatter, like the House Wren's, 

 but clear, strong and cheery, easily heard for a quarter of a mile, — such is 

 the song of Bewick's Wren. Easily distinguished from the former he has 

 the same teasing ways about him, — now peeping into some corner, now examining 

 the woodpile, now crawling into a knot-hole of the smoke-house, creeping forth 

 like a mouse at the next moment, whisking his erectly-carried tail, watching you 

 carefully though fearlessly, he all of a sudden mounts some fence-posts, pours 



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