VI 
THE CAVE-DWELLING FAMILY 
( Troglodytide) * 
First BRANCH 
Tuis is a family of singers, who dress in plain 
colors. There is not a red or blue stripe, and 
not a yellow or purple feather, among them. 
The family has two branches, or subfamilies 
as the books call them. The first branch, 
which gives the name to the family, is made of 
birds who are really a sort of cave-dwellers, — 
the wrens. 
Wrens are lively little birds, excitable and 
afraid of nothing. They are in plain browns, 
barred off with another shade of the same color. 
They are so near the color of the ground, where 
they spend most of their time, that they are not 
easily seen. They have a way of holding their 
tails up, some of them much more than others, 
by which one may know a wren wherever he 
sees it. 
1 See Appendix, 5. 
