WESTERN WINTER WREN 171 



slope, that the latter are considerably darker in color above, with little 

 or almost none of the whitish spotting among the dusky bars so char- 

 acteristic of eastern specimens. The under parts are more rufous, 

 the tarsi appear shorter, and the claws decidedly larger." 



Eidgway (1904) describes it as similar to the eastern bird, "but 

 darker and more richly colored; brown of upper parts darker, more 

 rusty, more unifonn, the back, etc., much less distinctly barred, often 

 quite uniform; color of throat, chest, etc., much deeper and brighter, 

 moie tawny-cinnamon or light russet ; bill straighter and more slender." 



The breeding range of the western winter wren extends along the 

 Pacific slope from Prince William Sound, Alaska, to central Califor- 

 nia, and in the Rocky Mountan region from western Alberta to north- 

 ern Colorado. 



The haunts and habits of the western winter wren are similar to 

 those of its eastern relative, though the environment is somewhat 

 different. The eastern bird is content to make its summer home in 

 dense forests of spruces and firs that grow to only moderate heights, 

 while its western relative lives in the deep forests of giant conifers 

 that so heavily clothe the northwest coast from sea level to the limit 

 of trees, and in the deep shade of the grand redwood forests of 

 California. 



S. F. Rathbun tells me that it is one of the few birds to be f oimd 

 in the deep forests of western Washington, even in the densest places. 

 He finds it in the forests bordering the beaches, at lake level inland 

 and up to 5,000 feet in the Olympic Mountains. Referring to Mount 

 Rainier, in Washington, Taylor and Shaw (1927) write : "The western 

 winter wren seems as much a part of the forest floor as the mosses, 

 huckleberry vines, huge logs, and upturned roots of his surround- 

 ings. * * * "^i^en the traveler emerges from the dark woods 

 onto the open meadows or well-lighted brushy burns the wrens become 

 much less numerous, for they are fond of shadows. They are often 

 found at a considerable distance from water on some forest-covered 

 hillside. Once, indeed, they were noted in clumps of alpine firs on 

 an open and well-lighted hillside with a southern exposure." 



Grinnell and Storer (1924) say that, in the Yosemite region, this, 

 the smallest and most seclusive of the wrens, "lives at the middle 

 altitudes, amid freshest-bared tangles and rootlets and accumulations 

 of drift materials along shaded stream courses." W. A. Kent writes 

 to me that, at the head waters of the Kern River in the Sierra Nevadas 

 he found that the western winter wren had nested at an elevation of 

 11,000 feet. Dawson (1923) says : "The Western Winter Wren is one 

 of the commonest birds in the humid coast belt of western California 

 as far south as middle Monterey County. Not only is it the most 

 characteristic inhabitant of rugged stream beds and romantic dells, 

 but it may be found throughout the somber depths of the fir and red- 



