THE CAROLINA WREN. 21Y 



his nests — or, perhaps, I should change the 

 gender of the pronouns and say she and he7\ 

 One nest, which I found in a quiet glen, was 

 placed in a hollow of a sapling's stem, the ves- 

 tibule leading down to the home nursery being 

 a pretty winding way, through ^^ hich, by keen 

 scrutiny, the eggs could be seen. Not more 

 than four rods away another nest was discov- 

 ered, the next spring, under the overarching 

 sod of a streamlet's bank. In going to the 

 nest the little mother would flit to a branch 

 in the thorn bush above, then to a dead twig 

 lying on the bank in front of her domicile ; 

 thence she would glance up the sandy slope to 

 the nest. Holes in logs, old hats, nail boxes, 

 all sorts of nooks and crevices about country 

 houses are utilized for nesting places by the 

 little builders. 



It has been remarked that the Carolina wren 

 is not so provincial as his name would indicate. 

 The manuals say he is rare north of forty de- 

 grees north latitude ; but south of that, to my 

 certain knowledge, he ranges at his own sweet 

 will, and it is doubtful if he will always re- 

 main within the boundary lines marked out 

 for him by meddlesome naturalists. In my 

 boyhood days he was one of our most familiar 

 species in northeastern Ohio. Southwest of the 



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