CAROLINA WREN 213 



call, alarm, or scolding notes, among which Mr. Simmons (1925) lists 

 "calls, with much rolling of the r's, tervp; tierry-tier-r-'p ; chier-r-r; 

 cheerrp^ tieu u u; a slower tieur-r-r^ tieur-r-, tieur-r-r^ about a two 

 second interval between each; cack; clach; clink; clinking metallic? 

 rattles; musical trills and tree-toad-like k-r-r-r-r-ingsy 



Dawson (1903) writes: "On all occasions this nervous little creature 

 appears to be full of a sort of compressed air, which escapes from time 

 to time in a series of mild explosions, like the lid of a teakettle being 

 jarred up and down by steam. When the valve is opened a little wider 

 there follows an accelerando rattling call, which seems to be modeled 

 after the chirr of the red squirrel ; and when the throttle is held wide 

 open the rattling notes are telescoped together into an emphatic 

 ^kurr'r'st,^ which brings one up standing." 



Aretas A. Saunders has 78 records of the songs of the Carolina wren. 

 P'ollowing are some quotations from his notes : "In form the song is 

 much like that of the Maryland yellowthroat, but the louder, clearer 

 quality, lower pitch, and frequency of liquid consonant sounds make it 

 sound quite different. Individual birds sing a great number of varia- 

 tions. In June 1930 1 recorded eight different songs from one individ- 

 ual in less than half an hour. In 1928 a wren of this species lived in a 

 locality that I visited frequently, and I recorded 36 different songs 

 from it through the season. 



"In pitch my records vary from G ' ' to A ' ' ', one tone more than an 

 octave, and all the notes, so far as my car could determine, lower than 

 the highest note of the piano. The widest pitch variation in one song 

 is four and a half tones, and the least one tone, the average about two 

 tones. 



"The length of a single song varies from about 1% to 3^5 seconds and 

 depends mainly on the number of times the bird repeats the j)hrase of 

 the song. As a rule, one phrase occupies about two-fifths of a second, 

 except in unusual songs where a phrase is longer or shorter than 

 usual." 



Field marks. — The Carolina wren is the largest of the wrens f omid in 

 eastern North America, hence the former name "great Carolina wren." 

 It is rather a chunky bird, rich reddish brown above and buff below, 

 except for the white chin and the barred under tail coverts. There is 

 a conspicuous, long, white stripe over the eye. The tail is brown like 

 the back and is barred, but it is not fan-shaped or white-tipped, like the 

 tail of Bewick's wren. 



Enemies. — This wren is annoyed by the usual external parasites that 

 infest other birds; Harold S. Peters (193G) lists four species of ticks, 

 two of mites, and one louse that cause some irritation. Probably some 

 die from eating poisoned flies and other insects, and predatory mam- 

 mals and birds may take their toll. The house wren is a competitor for 



75S06G— 48 15 



