EASTERN HOUSE WREN 133 



as a "primitive" and by others as an "abnormal" song. Saunders 

 (1929b) relates an interesting experience with a house wren singing 

 these abnormal songs at Fairfield, Conn., as follows : 



[The] song was like that of no bird with which I am familiar. In fact the 

 bird possessed nine different songs, no one of them normal, although one or two 

 had a wrenlike suggestion in them. One began with five long, loud whistled 

 notes, a little suggestive of some notes of the cardinal. Another began with two 

 such notes and two others ended with a single note of this character. One was 

 a series of slurs and somewhat suggested a Swamp Sparrow. Another in form 

 but not in voice, was like a Song Sparrow song, yet no one of these songs sug- 

 gested any of these birds clearly enough as to make me think them imitations. 

 All these songs were recorded between June 4th and 17th, after which the bird 

 disappeared. When I first heard this bird I had not the slightest idea what 

 species was producing the song. 



The song of some birds ceases or deteriorates with the completion 

 of the set of eggs and the beginning of incubation, but in the case 

 of the house wren the full song is continued with great frequency 

 even when the young are being fed. Saunders (1929b) has presented 

 an interesting interpretation of this continued singing from the stand- 

 point of function. During the early part of the breeding season it 

 serves as a territory song, but later when the young appear it acts as 

 a stimulus in prompting the young to a feeding response. Saunders 

 writes as follows : 



Many have undoubtedly observed the incessant singing of the male House 

 Wren when feeding young and the habit of approaching the nest with a bill full 

 of insects and singing just before entering the door, without dropping any of the 

 insects. This explains why the bird has this habit. The song at that time does 

 not differ materially from the territory song of earlier spring but it is no longer 

 a territory song, but a stimulus for the young. According to my own observations 

 during the early nest life of the young House Wrens, the male gathers the food 

 and the female stays in the nest with the young, probably brooding, the male 

 passing the food to her at the entrance. Later, when the young are older and 

 need no stimulus, but need a greater quantity of food, both parents gather food 

 and feed the young. 



According to correspondence received from A. D. DuBois, the notes 

 of the male, at the time when the wrens had young, changed to a 

 shorter simpler strain consisting principally of two tones: a succes- 

 sion of high notes followed by a succession of low notes. 



The song of the house wren is continued to a time well beyond the 

 nesting season. The bird is in full song until the last week of July 

 and then tapers off into August, but it continues to sing during most of 

 the month and has been heard as late as November 5. Evans (1918) , 

 a florist at Evanston, 111., left the door of his greenhouse open in the 

 fall. A house wren entered, and in the evening the song was heard. 

 The bird remained all winter, and the song was delightful in zero 

 weather of January. These late songs, however, are different, often 

 exhibiting a decided change in quality and volume when compared 



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