126 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



them directly. A few days later this same wren was observed feeding 

 a family of English sparrows. 



There is evidence that polygamy may be practiced among house 

 wrens. Kathleen M. Hempel (1919) gives an account of two families 

 of wrens that were served by one male. The lone male carried food to 

 both females during the course of incubation and assisted in feeding 

 each of the broods of offspring. John W. Taylor (1905) cites a 

 similar case at St. Paul, Minn., in which a male wren carried food to 

 two nests, one located in a stump and the other about 60 feet away in 

 a birdhouse. Metcalf ( 1919) writes that he had eight house-wren nests 

 on his place at Foreston, Minn., but at no time did he observe more 

 than two males. 



After the young leave the nesting box in which they were reared, 

 they seldom return, but many observers have reported seeing the entire 

 family brood rounded together by the parents, at the end of the day, 

 to roosting places. These places may be other nesting boxes, a plat- 

 form provided by an unused robin's or chipping sparrow's nest, or the 

 dense foliage of a pine tree or shrub. Such roosts may be used for a 

 week or more before the family disperses and the young assume a more 

 or less independent role. Usually the adults remain with their young 

 about 12 or 13 days, and for the first part of this period the parents 

 feed the young practically everything they receive. During the last 

 few days of this period they acquire the ability to hunt food for them- 

 selves, and the parents spend less and less time with them. Finally, 

 when the young are able to take care of themselves, the relationship of 

 parent to offspring ceases and becomes that of individual to individual. 



Pluinages. — The natal down is sepia brown in color. This first plum- 

 age is very scant, being represented in typical specimens by not more 

 than 25 neossoptiles or down feathers. Of these there are five on each 

 side of the crown and four on each side of the occipital region. On 

 the back of the bird there are three on each side and usually a single 

 one at the posterior end of the median line. 



The down undergoes disintegration by wear and abrasion in the 

 nest, and by the time the young are ready to fly only a few filaments 

 remain attached to the tips of the juvenal feathers. The juvenal 

 plumage of the house wren is described by Dwight (1900) as follows : 

 "Above, Prout's-brown, russet tinged on the rump and deep grayish 

 sepia on the pileum, sometimes faintly barred. Wings and tail Prout's- 

 brown, darkest on the wings both with wavy, dusky barring, the palest 

 areas on the outer primaries. Below, including sides of the head, dull 

 grayish white with dusky mottling, washed strongly with russet on 

 the flanks and crissum. Orbital ring dusi^ buff. Bill and feet buffy 

 sepia-brown, becoming darker." The juvenal plumage differs from 

 that of the adult in the blackish mottling of the breast, but these 

 markings disappear with the postjuvenal molt. 



