TEXAS WREN 185 



chosen by Bewick's wrens elsewhere and adds a few unusual sites, such 

 as broken bottles on shelves in sheds, old cow skulls in pastures, old 

 hats in sheds, and old oriole and mockingbird nests. Others have 

 found this wren nesting in old nests of the cactus wren and verdin ; 

 Harry P. Atwater (1887) has seen several such. He relates the follow- 

 ing story : "I once told a little boy to put an old tin can in a brush heap 

 and perhaps a bird would make a nest in it for him. About a week 

 after I was surprised when the boy came and told me the bird had 

 done so and laid an egg in it. * * * On finding the nest the eve- 

 ning before, the boy had taken the can with him to the house with the 

 egg and bird in it, and after showing it to his folks had placed it in 

 another brush heap close to the house. Six eggs were laid in this nest, 

 and the can containing bird, eggs and nest taken into the house on 

 several occasions after dark to show to people. Finally on one occasion 

 the eggs were broken in handling and the nest deserted." 



Margaret Morse Nice (1931) watched a pair of Texas wrens build- 

 ing their nest, in Oklahoma ; she gives the following account of their 

 activity : 



On April 18, 1926, a pair of Texas "Wrens were building with great enthusi- 

 asm in one of our bird boxes ; in 3% hours tliey made 239 trips — slightly more 

 than one a minute. Their best record was 20 trips in 6 minutes. Both labored 

 most of the time. The male was so busy that he only sang 17 songs during the 

 period I watched. Two sample minutes will give an idea of their energy. 

 9 : 49. Both wrens coming to box, one goes in with a big twig, other says, jce, jee, 

 jee, gives its twig to the bird inside, leaves, is back with a rag which it pushes 

 part way in, saying jee, jee, leaves. 1 : 57. Bird goes in with dead leaf, out 

 again ; other goes in with grass root, out ; tirst enters with dead grass, out ; 

 other in with twig, out. 



Mr. Simmons (1925) says that the nest is a "large, compact struc- 

 ture, top level and open above; composed of a mass of rubbish, prin- 

 cipally cedar bark strips, small short sticks and twigs, dead leaves, 

 bits of twine, and chicken feathers, with the occasional use of horse- 

 hair, cowhair, grass, weed stems, rootlets, oak blossoms, cast-off snake 

 skin, cotton waste, leaf skeletons, spider webs, cobwebs, caterpillar 

 cocoons, paper, and bits of corn husks. Cedar bark and twigs are 

 usually interlocked and moulded into a strong, symmetrical nest with 

 deep, well constructed cup." 



Eggs. — The Texas wren sometimes lays as many as nine eggs, but 

 the usual set consists of six or seven. These are practically indistin- 

 guishable from those of Bewick's wren, showing the usual variations ; 

 some are more heavily marked with larger and more confluent spots, 

 especially about the larger end. The measurements of 40 eggs in the 

 United States National Museum average 16.2 by 12.7 millimeters ; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.8 by 13.2, 16.4 by 13.2, 

 14.6 by 12.0, and 15.8 by 11.7 millimeters. 



The food, behavior, and voice of the Texas wren apparently do not 



