206 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



nature more often demands the freedom of the forests, and he shows no 

 disposition to adapt himself to new conditions. Undergrowths near 

 water, fallen tree tops, brush heaps, and rocky places in the woods 

 where he can dodge in and out and in a twinkling appear or disappear 

 like a feathered Jack-in-the-box, are the resorts he chooses." 



The last part of this statement is undoubtedly true, but there is 

 plenty of evidence that he has learned "to adapt himself to new condi- 

 tions." Milton P. Skinner (1928) , for example, says that, in the sand- 

 hills of North Carolina, these wrens "are dwellers in the dooryards and 

 about houses, more even than in wilder haunts. Almost all kinds of 

 shrubbery attract them, but they like the thickest, thorny kind the best. 

 While they are generally in the bushes and lower growth, they some- 

 times go higher into trees, even as much as thirty feet above the 

 ground." Arthur H. Howell (1924) says that, in Alabama, "although 

 partial to low bottomland timber," it is "found also about farmyards 

 and in town gardens. Indeed, so domestic is it at times that it is often 

 called 'house wren'." Other observers give us similar impressions and 

 the bird certainly shows considerable adaptability in its choice of a 

 great variety of nesting sites about human structures. There is no 

 doubt, however, that it has always shown a preference for the wilder 

 woodland thickets, preferably along watercourses and in swamps, but 

 also in hammocks and in isolated clumps of trees and bushes on the 

 prairies and pine barrens throughout the South. 



Courtship. — I can find no information on this subject, but Mrs. 

 Amelia R. Laskey has sent me some notes that indicate some degree of 

 constancy. A male banded June 25, 1934, was recaptured at intervals 

 until January 18, 1938 ; and a female banded November 19, 1934, was 

 taken at intervals until the summer of 1939. Thus the male was at 

 least 4^2 years old, and the female at least 5 years old. "Part of the 

 period they are positively known to have been mates, as they wore 

 colored plumes and were seen together in winter as well as in the nesting 

 season." Others have noticed that they are often seen in pairs all 

 through winter. 



Nesting. — The Carolina wren originally nested in woodlands, 

 thickets, brushy hollows, and swamps and along the banks of streams, 

 where it could find cover ; and it still does so over most of its range, 

 without taking advantage of the many opportunities offered in and 

 about human structures. In these wilder spots it may build its nest 

 in a hole in a tree or stump, in the open crotch of a tree, in a densely 

 branched cedar, in the upturned roots of a fallen tree, on the ground 

 under the exposed roots of a tree or under dense undergrowth, in a 

 hole in a bank or under its overhang among tangled roots, in a cavity 

 in a stone wall, or even in a sheaf of grain in an open field. Nests in 

 such situations are hard to find and are probably not so often reported 

 as the more obvious sites about human dwellings. 



