152 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



larger and darker form of the present species, hardly distinct enough to be 

 treated even as a race. Mr. Audubon met with an individual near Eastport 

 in 1832. The young were following their parents througli the tangled re- 

 cesses of a dark forest, in search of food. Others were obtained in tlie same 

 part of JNIaine, near Dennisville, where INIr. Lincoln informed Mr. Audubon 

 that this bird was the common Wren of the neighborhood, and that they bred 

 in hollow logs in the woods, but seldom approached farm-liouses. 



In the winter following, at Charleston, S. C, Mr. Audubon again met indi- 

 viduals of tliis supposed species, showing the same habits as in Maine, re- 

 maining in thick hedges, along ditches in the woods, not far from plantations. 

 The notes are described as differing considerably from those of the House 

 Wren. It has not been seen by Mr. Boardman, though residing in the 

 region where it is said to be the common Wren. Professor Verrill mentions 

 it as a rare bird in Western Maine. 



Mr. Charles S. Paine, of Eandolph, Vt., is the only naturalist who has 

 met with what he supposes were its nest and eggs. The following is his 

 account, communicated by letter. 



" The Wood Wren comes among us in the spring about the 10th or 15th 

 of April, and sings liabitually as it skips among the brush and logs and 

 under the roots and stumps of trees. In one instance I have known it to 

 make its aj)pearance in midwinter, and to be about the house and barn some 

 time. It is only occasionally that they spend the summer here (Central 

 Vermont). The nest from which I obtained the egg you now have, I found 

 about the first of July, just as the young were about to fly. There were five 

 young birds and one egg. The nest w^as built on the hanging bark of a de- 

 caying beech-log, close under the log. A great quantity of moss and rotten 

 wood had been collected and filled in aiound the nest, and a little round hole 

 left for the entrance. The nest was lined with a soft, downy substance. I 

 have no doubt that tliey sometimes commence to breed as early as tlie middle 

 of May, as I have seen their young out in early June." 



Mr. Paine discredits the statement that they build their nests in holes in 

 the ground. The egg referred to by Mr. Paine is oval in shape, sliglitly more 

 pointed at one end, measuring .75 of an inch in length by .53 in breadth. 

 The ground is a dead chalky-white, over whicli are sprinkled a few very fine 

 dots of a light yellowish-brown, slightly more numerous at the larger end. 

 Tliis egg, while it bears some resemblance to that of the Winter W>en, is 

 totally unlike that of the House Wren. 



