THE BEWICK WREN. 



263 



BARELY known as an Ohio bird at Wheaton's time ( its nest having been 

 found once in Circleville) the Bewick Wren today is the Wren of Southern 

 Ohio. Since his arrival the House Wren lias "left the country" and has been 

 entirely replaced by this better songster and thriftier species. When the chill- 

 ing blasts of February, 1899, howled over the Scioto Valley bottoms and crept 

 into every ravine of the hills, the thermometer standing at 30 below zero, 

 when Goldfinches and Spar- 

 rows dropped out of the 

 exhausted and frozen, the 

 cheerful voice of the Be- 

 wick Wren was 

 loudly ringing from 

 some favorite perch. 

 How I had to 

 envy 

 While man and 



A NEST IN THE WOODPILE. 



beast were seeking shelter from this cold, and the earth was groaning under 

 its burden of snow, he, undaunted, gay and light-hearted, was singing in 

 anticipation of the joyous springtime. And again when trees and flowers 

 bloom, or when midsummer's sun is blazing down in unabated fury, his song 

 greets us at our home. Not a voluble merry chatter, like the House Wren's, 

 but clear, strong and cheery, easily heard for a quarter of a mile, — such is 

 the song of Bewick's Wren. Easily distinguished from the former he has 

 the same teasing days about him, — now peeping into some corner, now ex- 

 amining the woodpile, now crawling into a knot-hole of the smoke-house. 

 creeping forth like a mouse at the next moment, whisking his erectly-carried 

 tail, watching you carefully though fearlessly, he all of a sudden mounts 

 some fence-post, pours forth his proud metallic notes, drops clown into the 

 chicken yard, disappears in the pig pen. mockingly scolds at you. sings again, and 

 is willing to keep this game up all day. We d< 1 not know which to admire more. 



