176 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



later through a little ventilating window under the eaves and also heard them 

 moving about. Just before complete darkness, one belated wren came to the 

 bird box, tried to enter and failed, finding a full house; but not to be denied 

 a warm sleeping place he stood a few moments on the little porch and made 

 a vigorous but unsuccessful attempt to gain entrance. He heard the wrens 

 inside chattering and moving about, perhaps trying to make room for the late 

 comer. He finally made a third desperate attempt and, climbing over seemingly 

 insurmountable obstacles, he gainetP entrance, and in a few moments all was 

 still with 31 Winter Wrens snugly ensconced in this 6X6X6 inch apartment. 



THRYOMANES BEWICKII BEWICKII (Audubon) 



BEWICK'S WREN 



Plate 34 



HABITS 



Bewick's wren, the type race of the species, is the eastern representa- 

 tive of a widely distributed species that has been subdivided into 12 

 additional subspecies in western North America within the limits 

 of our Check-list. Although it has the widest range and has been 

 known for the longest time, it does not seem to have been so thoroughly 

 studied as some of the western races. Its breeding range, according 

 to the 1931 Check-list, is from southeastern Nebraska, northern Illinois, 

 southern Michigan, and central Pennsylvania south to central Ar- 

 kansas, northern Mississippi, central Alabama, central Georgia, and 

 the highlands of South Carolina. 



The local distribution of Bewick's wren seems to be dependent on, 

 or limited by, the local distribution of the house wren, for the two 

 do not seem to get along well together, as several observers have noted. 

 Perhaps the gentle Bewick's wren is no match for the more aggressive 

 house wren. 



Dr. George M. Sutton (1930) says: "The House Wren and 

 Carolina Wren may inhabit precisely the same region without fric- 

 tion ; but the House Wren and Bewick's Wren, or the Bewick's Wren 

 and Carolina Wren, or all three species, evidently do not." (See also 

 Bayard H. Christy's 1924 paper.) 



Whatever the local situations may be, or whichever wren may be 

 the aggressor, the fact remains that Bewick's wren has been steadily 

 extending its general range northward into the States named above, 

 as well as in Ohio and Indiana, in regions where it was unknown 50 

 years ago; most of this northward extension seems to have occurred 

 during the last decade of the last century and the first ten years of 

 this. This movement is discussed in more detail by Leon J. Cole ( 1905 ) 

 and more lately by W. E. Clyde Todd (1940), for those who care to 

 study its i3rogress. 



Where Bewick's wren replaces the house wren it becomes the "house 

 wren" of the community, avoiding the swampy woodlands and fre- 



