EASTERN WINTER WREN 157 



cited about something. They hardly noticed her, and as she came 

 near she saw a chipmunk running with a bird in its mouth. The little 

 squirrel sprang from the stone wall and went up a tree, dropping the 

 bird as it did so. She picked up the victim, a winter wren." 



Fall and winter. — This little wren may have derived its name from 

 the fact that a few hardy individuals venture to spend the winter in 

 the northern States and even occasionally in southern Ontario. Dur- 

 ing mild winters they manage to make a fair living in the more sheltered 

 places, but in severe winters many of them may perish from hunger 

 and cold, especially when their meager food supply is buried under a 

 blanket of deep snow. Mr. Forbush (1929) says that their dead 

 bodies are found occasionally under piles of lumber or wood. Dr. 

 John B. May told him that, at his summer camp in New Hampshire, 

 "on two different occasions winter wrens entered his camp buildings 

 through knot-holes in the walls, and, unable to find their w^ay out 

 again, perished, their shriveled bodies being found in the buildings 

 the next spring." 



In January 1871, Mr. Brewster (1906) "found one in Waltham 

 (Mass.), that had taken up its abode in an old, disused barn which 

 it entered by means of a conveniently placed knothole and from 

 which it made short excursions in search of food along a neigh- 

 boring wall." 



Most of the wrens, however, migrate southward during the fall. 

 We look for them in Massachusetts during the first cold weather in 

 October. At this season they are often seen in the more open places and 

 in some unexpected situations. They are occasionally seen about 

 houses and gardens in towns and villages, and they even wander into 

 the cities. I have seen one in my yard in the center of the city of 

 Taunton, within a hundred yards of brick buildings. And Mr. Brew- 

 ster (1906) reports one that was discovered, on October 15, 1899, 

 "crouching in the shelter of one of the massive granite columns which 

 support the front of the Boston Custom House." 



In the southern Alleghenies there is a downward migration from 

 the coniferous forests on the mountain tops late in fall. Keferring 

 to Mount Mitchell, in western North Carolina, Thomas D. Burleigh 

 (1941) says of the winter wren: "Breeding abundantly in the thick 

 fir and spruce woods at the top of the mountain this hardy little 

 bird lingers in the fall until winter blizzards force it to a lower 

 altitude. The first hint of milder weather sees its reappearance, so 

 for 10 months out of the average year it can be found on the higher 

 ridges. Exceptional winter will influence its movements to a certain 

 extent, but it can invariably be seen on Mt. Mitchell from the latter 

 part of March until the middle of November, and has been recorded 

 there as early as February 6, 1931, and as late as December 6, 1932." 



Dr. Eugene E. Murphey (1937), writing of its haunts in the 



