188 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Enemies. — Probably these wrens are preyed upon by the usual 

 predatory birds and mammals, but two reported cases are worth 

 mentioning. Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) state that a "Baird's 

 Wren was found in the stomach of a Roadrunner." And Mrs. Bailey 

 (1928) says that Major Goldman found a dead wren "in the mouth 

 of a rattlesnake that had just killed it." 



Winter. — ^Dr. Grinnell (1914) found the desert Bewick wren to 

 be common as a Avinter visitant in the lower Colorado Valley, in 

 southeastern California ; he says that it was "observed chiefly in the 

 sparse brush margining the washes leading down from the desert 

 interior. The catclaw and larger creosote bushes appeared to afford 

 both productive foraging grounds and safe retreats. It was rarely 

 that this wren was seen near the river, and then only as far as the 

 salt-bush belt. The range of the western house wren in tlie willow 

 association appeared to be not at all impinged upon by that of the 

 desert Bewick wren. This again shows the local dissociation of 

 birds of the same or nearly the same habits, even in their winter 

 habitats. It is to be inferred that there are inherent preferences of 

 the two species for cover of the two different sorts." 



THRYOMANES BEWICKII CALOPHONUS Oberholser 



SEATTLE WREN 



Plate 36 



HABITS 



For a comparatively short distance along the humid northwest 

 coast, from southern British Columbia to Oregon, we find this some- 

 what larger and darker subspecies. It does not seem to be much 

 darker or browner than its nearest neighbor on the coast, marinensis, 

 but its size is greater. 



Before Dr. Oberholser (1898) wrote his paper on this group, spilurus 

 was supposed to range north to, at least, Marin County, the type locality 

 of marinensis. He naturally wrote at that time, regarding caloplionus : 

 "It differs from spilurus., its nearest ally, in conspicuously larger bill, 

 besides averaging greater in all its other measurements. The upper 

 surface seems to be usually rather deeper and richer brown ; the flanks 

 somewhat more rufescent. From hewickii, calophonus is easily dis- 

 tinguished by deeper, more sooty brown above, much darker sides 

 and flanks, wider superciliary stripe, longer bill, tarsus and middle 

 toe." 



Wlien I was in Seattle, in 1911, these wrens were common on the 

 partially wooded campus of the University of Washington, especiallj^ 

 in the ravines and on the brushy slopes. We saw them almost daily 

 in the partially cleared woodlands around Kirkland, and on the 



