148 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



TROGLODYTES TROGLODYTES HIEMALIS Vieillot 



EASTERN WINTER WREN 



Plates 29, 30 



HABITS 



Although the winter wren breeds in suitable localities in some of 

 the northern States, from western Massachusetts to central Minne- 

 sota, and as far south in the Alleghenies as northern Georgia, it is 

 usually found there in only limited numbers. To many of us it is 

 known only as a migrant, a furtive little mite, the smallest of its 

 tribe, creeping mouselike about our wood piles or brush heaps, under 

 the overhanging roots of trees along some woodland stream, or under 

 the banks of marshland ditches. To see it, or rather to hear its 

 tinkling, rippling song, to best advantage, we must visit its summer 

 haunts in the cool, shady northern forests, where the sunshine hardly 

 penetrates, where rotting stumps and fallen tree trunks are thickly 

 covered with soft mosses, where dampness pervades the atmosphere 

 near babbling woodland brooks, and where a luxuriant growth of 

 ferns springs from the accumulation of rich leaf mold to nearly 

 hide the forest floor. Here it finds a safe retreat from prying eyes, 

 where its dark color, diminutive size, and retiring habits make it 

 hard to find, until we hear its remarkable voice announcing its 

 presence. 



Henry Nehrling (1893) says that "in the Alleghenies where our 

 most magnificent shrubs, rhododendrons, mountain laurel or kalmias 

 and different azaleas fringe the streams and brooks and often cover 

 whole mountain sides, lending to them an indescribable charm, this 

 bird appears to take up its abode everywhere." 



Even on its breeding grounds this wren is sometimes seen in more 

 open places; William Brewster (1938) has seen one among large 

 boulders at the very edge of the water at Lake Umbagog and among 

 the tall grass on the lake shore. 



Spring. — The winter range of this wren is so extensive, from New 

 England to Florida, and the birds are so widely scattered at that 

 season, that the spring migration is not conspicuous. Those that 

 spend a short winter in the Southern States start early to join their 

 companions that have wintered farther north. There is a gradual 

 and a leisurely northward movement, as the birds drift along from 

 bush to bush, through one gully after another, through woodland 

 underbrush and windfalls, along the edges of swamps, and along old 

 stone walls, always under cover where possible. Only when they 

 come to some wide stream or open space must they spread their tiny 

 wings and speed across. 



They mostly pass unobserved, until we hear the fine silver thread 



