58 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



eggs have dots of brown and reddish, often distributed so 

 evenly as to give the impression of these colors, though the 

 ground color is lighter. The nesting season is frequently 

 prolonged into August, as two and three broods are regu- 

 larly reared each season. 



The best songs of the wren are probably heard after the 

 birds are happily mated and the female has begun to de- 

 posit her eggs. Then the happy male whirs to a favorite 

 station, usually on the gable at the extremity of the ridge- 

 pole of a house or an out-building, and there, with tail 

 nearly vertical aud head thrown back, he expresses the 

 overflowing happiness of his lot. The song is a merry 

 little roundelay — a forcible, voluble gush of hurried con- 

 tentment. The performer does not remain long in one 

 place, however, aud soon jerks himself along the ridge- 

 pole, or down the gable side, or flies into the lower 

 branches of a neighboring tree, where he chatters with 

 vigor as he whisks himself in and out of view among the 

 foliage. Now he is on the ground, hopping among the 

 dried leaves and shrubbery, or rummaging under a pile of 

 old rails, and turning up in the most unexpected places. 

 From roof to tree, from tree back to roof, from roof to the 

 ground, in and out of the bushes, he is ever on the move, 

 seemingly busy, but seldom carrying to completion any of 

 his plans. He is perfectly at home among the stems of the 

 weeds in the pastures, and he clings to the culms with the 

 agility of his relatives, the marsh wrens. 



Quite in contrast to the custom of many of our feathered 

 neighbors, the wren does not cease to utter his measures 

 of happiness after the cares of home and offspring begin 

 to curtail his leisure time. He waits upon his mistress, 

 brooding upon her speckled treasures, as merrily and gal- 

 lantly as he courted her, and never, after carrying her a 

 choice morsel, does he leave her without going to a 

 favorite perch and hurriedly chattering his heartfelt satis- 

 faction. Not until he has escorted his youngsters to the 

 hedges and weed patches, and taught them to earn their 

 livelihood, does he cease to give outward expression to his 

 happiness. 



One fortunate summer a pair of wrens established them- 

 selves in a cavity, about twelve feet from the ground, in a 



