SALPIXCTES OBSOLETUS. 419 



of that country is so well suited to its habits. It was first met with near 

 tlie summit of the Donner Lake Pass of the Sierra Nevada, but this was on 

 the eastern slope, and in a district where the pine forests were interrupted by 

 considerable tracts of open country, of a more or less rocky nature. East- 

 ward of this point, as far as we journeyed, it was foimd in suitable localities 

 on all the desert ranges. Its favorite resoi-ts are piles of rocks, where it 

 may be observed hopping in and out among the recesses or interstices 

 between the bowlders, or perched upon the summit of a stone, usually 

 uttering its simple, guttural notes. It is not strictly rupicoline, however, 

 for along the eastern base of the Sien-a Nevada, where thd pine forest 

 reaches to the very base of the mountains, it was common in cleared tracts 

 where there was much rubbish of old stumps, prostrate logs, and piles of 

 brush, seeming as much at home there as among the rocks. At that place 

 the males were occasionally observed to fly up to a naked branch of some 

 dead tree, and remain there while they sang their simple trill. This species 

 also freely accepts of the accommodations and protection afforded by man, 

 for in many towns, notably those among the mountains, it nests about 

 the old buildings and inside the entrance to mining-shafts, displaying as 

 much familiarity and confidence as the little House Wren, or Bewick's 

 Wren. It is an exceedingly unsuspicious little bird, if unmolested, always 

 greeting an intruder to its haunts by its cheerful note of turei:, while it bows 

 and scrapes most politely at each utterance ; but if too closely observed, or 

 pursued, it manages, by hopping through the interstices, to keep always on 

 the opposite side of the rock-pile, while it changes the note of welcome to an 

 admonishing, guttural tnrrrr. In its general appearance, except color, and in 

 many of its movements, the Rock Wren bears a somewhat close resemblance 

 to the Carolina Wren ( Thryothorus ludovkiaam) of the Eastern Region, 

 being of almost exactly the same size and shape ; the notes, too, are 

 somewhat similar in their general nature, particularh' the ordinary ones, 

 which have the same guttural character; but the song is a simple monoto- 

 nous trill, very much like that of the Snow-birds (Junco), and though t)ften 

 varied indefinitely, lacks any particular merit, from want of power and 

 sweetness, while it is in no wise comparable to the superb whistling song of 

 the species above mentioned. 



