ROCK WREN. 



715. Salpinctes ohsoletus. 5% inches. 



Upper parts stone color, specked with black; rump 

 brownish; underparts whitish with indistinct streaks 

 on the throat. 



A common bird on the dry, rocky foothills of the 

 Rockies and westward. They are well named, for their 

 favorite places are among the rocks, where they are 

 always busily engaged in hunting insects or spiders in 

 the crevices. Owing to their colors and their habits of 

 slinking away behind the rocks they are quite difficult 

 to see, but their sweet song is always heard if any of 

 the birds are in the vicinity. 



Song". — Very sweet and varied, almost canary-like, 

 but impossible to describe; call, a harsh grating note. 



Nest. — Of sticks, weeds, grasses, etc., concealed in 

 crevices among the rocks; the five or six eggs are white, 

 sparingly specked with reddish brown (.72x.54). 



Range. — Western U. S. from the Avestern border of 

 the Plains to the Pacific, north to Dakota and British 

 Columbia; winters from southwestern U. S. southward. 



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