1 88 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



spots. Like a Carolina Wren, it sings with head 

 up and tail hanging. William L. Finley. 



Bryant's Cactus Wren {Hclcodytcs bniniici- 

 capilliis bryaiili) is darker and browner above 



Photo by Mrs. F. T. Bicknell Courtesy of Nat. Asso. Aud. Sou. ' 

 NEST OF CACTUS WREN 



than the common Cactus Wren, and its shoulders, 

 back, and rump are conspicuously streaked with 

 white; three of the lateral tail-feathers are dis- 



tinctly barred with white ; its under parts are 

 more uniformly marked with black. It is dis- 

 tributed over the Pacific coast district of south- 

 ern California and northern Lower California. • 

 Though at present the Cactus Wren is found 

 chiefly in the deserts and waste places where its 

 diet is a matter of little or no economic im- 

 portance, it is not at all unlikely that its feed- 

 ing habits may some day afifect agriculture, and 

 for that reason its natural dietary preferences 

 may well receive some consideration now. Those 

 I (references were pretty clearly shown by exam- 

 ination of forty-one stomachs of the bird taken 

 in southern California ; these contained about 83 

 per cent, of animal matter and about 17 per cent, 

 of vegetable food. Of the insects taken about 27 

 per cent, were beetles, chiefly weevils and snout- 

 beetles, and all more or less injurious. Among 

 the bugs that had been devoured were black 

 scales, which are very injurious to fruit trees. 

 The vegetable food (17 per cent.) consisted of 

 fruit pulp and weed seeds, all of wild species. It 

 therefore, appears that this Wren's food con- 

 tains little that is useful to man, while the re- 

 mainder is made up of elements which are, or 

 would be, harmful on cultivated lands. 



ROCK WREN 

 Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus (Say) 



A. O. U. Number 715 



General Description. — Length, 6' 2 inches. Upper 

 parts, grayish-brown, speckled ; under parts, whitish 

 streaked with dark. Bill, shorter than head, slender, 

 and straight (except extreme tip) ; wings, rather long, 

 moderately rounded; tail, about -14 length of wing, 

 slightly rounded, the feathers very broad. 



Color. — Above, grayish-brown or brownish-gray 

 changing on rump to wine-colored cinnamon, most of 

 the surface marked with small wedge-shaped spots or 

 short streaks of dusky; middle tail-feathers, grayish- 

 brown barred with dusky; remaining tail-feathers 

 grayish-brown, broadly tipped with cinnamon-bufT and 

 crossed by a broad band of black ; a distinct whitish 

 stripe over the eye and a grayish-brown one back of 

 it; eye and cheek regions and lower portion of ear 

 region, dull white or brownish-white; under parts, dull 

 white, passing into pale cinnamon-buff on flanks; 



throat and chest (sometimes breast also) usually 

 streaked with grayish-brown or dusky ; bill, horn color ; 

 iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Usually placed in a cleft of 

 rocks; constructed of a large variety of materials, but 

 principally small twigs, moss. wool, hair, grass, or 

 weeds; a paving in front of nest made of small pebbles, 

 pieces of glass, or rock. Eggs: 5 to 8, usually 5 or 6, 

 glossy white, minutely and thinly speckled with chest- 

 nut. 



Distribution. — Western North America ; breeds from 

 southern British Columbia, west central Alberta, and 

 southwestern Saskatchewan south to Mexico and 

 peninsula of Lower California and adjacent islands, 

 east to western North Dakota, central Nebraska (casu- 

 ally western Iowa), and central Texas; winters in 

 southern part of its United States range and in Mexico. 



Wrens seem to have traditions as some people 

 do. I do not remember ever examining the nest 

 of the Parkman, or Western House, Wren and 

 not finding a bit of snake skin woven into the 



home. Perhaps this answers the purpose of a 

 hearthstone deity or a relic of long ago when the 

 first Wrens must have fought the reptile tribes. 

 The Rock Wren is not unlike its cousin in its. 



