Species V. SYLVIA DOMESTIC A* 



HOUSE WREN. 



[Plate VIII. Fig. 3.] 

 Motacilla domestica [Regulus rufus), Bartram, 291. 



This well known and familiar bird arrives in Pennsylvania about the 

 middle of April ; and about tbe eighth or tenth of May, begins to 

 build its nest, sometimes in the wooden cornice under the eaves, or in a 

 hollow cherry tree ; but most commonly in small boxes, fixed on the 

 top of a pole, in or near the garden,, to which he is extremely partial, 

 for the great number of caterpillars and other larvae with which it con- 

 stantly supplies him. If all these conveniences are' wanting, he will 

 even put up with an old hat, nailed on the weather boards, with a small 

 hole for entrance ; and if even this be denied him, he will find some 

 hole, corner or crevice about the house, barn or stable, rather than 

 abandon the dwellings of man. In the month of June, a mower hung 

 t up his coat, under a shed, near a barn ; two or three days elapsed be- 

 fore he had occasion to put it on again ; thrusting his arm up tb'^ sleeve 

 he found it completely filled with some rubbish, as he ex^pressed it, and, 

 on extracting the whole mass, found it to be the nest of a Wren com- 

 pletely finished, and lined with a large quantity of feathers. In his 

 retreat he was followed by the little forlorn proprietors, who scolded 

 him with great vehemence for thus ruining the whole economy of their 

 household affairs. T|ie twigs with which the outward parts of the nest 

 are constructed are short and crooked that they may the better hook in 

 with one another, and the hole or entrance is so much shut up to prevent 

 the intrusion of snakes or cats, that it appears almost impossible the 

 body of the bird could be admitted ; within this is a layer of fine dried 

 stalks of grass, and lastly feathers. The eggs are six or seven, and 

 sometimes nine, of a red purplish flesh color, innumerable fine grains of 

 that tint being thickly sprinkled over the whole egg. They generally 

 raise two broods in a season ; the first about the beginning of June, the 

 second in July. 



This little bird has a strong antipathy to cats ; for having frequent 

 occasion to glean among the currant bushes, and other shrubbery in the 



* Troglodytes cedon, Vieill. Ois. de T Am. Sept. pi. 107. 



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