150 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



noticed, in the soil adhering to the roots. The nesting cavity was 

 about 3 feet above the water in the upper left comer of the root and 

 only 4 feet from the nest of the waterthrush. Here was a bird of the 

 Carolinian fauna and one of the Canadian fauna nesting in the same 

 stump, each near the extreme limit of its range ! Furthermore, only 

 a few yards away was an occupied nest of the northern waterthrush, 

 a most interesting combination. 



The front of the cavity, in which the wren's nest was built, was 

 completely filled with sphagimm moss, green but partially dry; the 

 nest was made of soft grasses, reinforced with weed stems, fine twigs, 

 and rootlets; it was lined with white hair, which we concluded must 

 have come from a white-tailed deer, several wisps of which we found 

 hanging in the woods. The nest contained six young, which we 

 thought were about a week old. We saw the bird come to the nest 

 again and feed the young with a large white caterpillar, while we 

 were within 15 feet of her. Then she cleaned the nest and flew off 

 with a white sack of excrement. 



The upturned roots of fallen trees offer favorite nesting sites for 

 these wrens, for when the tree falls the roots carry up with them large 

 quantities of earth, in which many convenient cavities may be found. 

 All six of the nests recorded in Owen Durfee's notes from northern 

 New Hampshire were in upturned roots. Among 35 nests of which 

 I have descriptions, 18 were in the upturned roots of fallen trees, 

 evidently a favorite choice. Seven nests were recorded as in or under 

 rotten stumps, or under the roots of trees; in such situations the 

 nests are well concealed, for old stumps and roots are usually covered 

 with a luxuriant growth of moss, which matches perfectly the material 

 with which the outer part of the nest is made; the small entrance 

 hole is not easily seen and the nest resembles any other mossy mound. 

 A^erdi Burtch has sent me a photograph of a nest that was concealed 

 in the roots of a tree overhanging a gully bank. 



Although the nests are usually placed on or near the ground, well 

 concealed, some few have been reported in other situations. There is 

 a set of eggs in my collection, taken by E. H. Montgomery in Labrador 

 from an old hole of a woodpecker, 8 feet from the ground. F. H. 

 Kennard mentions in his notes a nest that was "placed in a roll of 

 bark on the side of a huge yellow birch, about 5 feet from the ground." 

 Ora W. Knight (1908) says that the nests are "sometimes suspended 

 from the branches of a spruce or fir tree even as high as ten feet from 

 the ground. While these tree nests are more frequently the 'mock' 

 nests, they sometimes lay in one of these and rear their brood." Harry 

 Piers (1898) found a nest near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in an unusual 

 location: "It was simply a cavity in moss, in situ upon the face of a 

 rock close to the shore of a small lake. This moss was constantly satu- 

 rated with water which trickled from a bank above and slowly flowed 



