11 



HOUSE WRENS are the best known 

 of our wrens. They cannot help being 

 seen or heard. 



The song of the House Wren is a 

 most spontaneous outburst and can only 

 be described as a loud, liquid, bubbling 

 warble. The most pessimistic person 

 living could not listen to this song and 

 watch tlie actions of tlie singer without 

 taking a brighter view of life. 



It is very interesting to watch them 

 while nest building. Their sites are 

 holes in trees, fence posts, bird houses, 

 etc. It is customary for them to use 

 many twigs, sometimes quite lengthy 

 ones; an experienced wren will carry 

 such by the end and find no difl[iculty 

 in getting it tlirough the small opening 

 to their liome, but sometimes one not 

 as wise will fetcli a stick by the mid- 

 dle and its contortions as it tries to get 

 inside or to get the twig in, are very 

 interesting. Tlie hollow of the nest is 

 lined witli grass and featliers to make 

 a soft bed for the numerous eggs. 



The family of Titmice is well represented by our com- 

 mon CHICKADEE. Chickadees are most sociable birds 

 among themselves, with other species and also with man. 

 In winter they will come about our houses, provided we 

 have trees in our yard, gleaning insect eggs and pupae from 

 the twigs and feeding upon suet and nuts that many kind 

 peoj3le put in suitable places for them. Often they become 

 so tame that thej^ will alight on the hand and feed from the 

 jDalm. Who could help loving such saucy little midgets with 

 black caps and bibs, as they swing from the tips of the 

 branches and call cheerily to us with a "chickadee-dee-dee." 

 Sometimes, too, they whistle to us, a clear, high-pitched 

 "phe-be." 



In summer, they make homes bj'' digging out cavities of 

 decayed limbs, sometimes in orchard trees, again in trees 

 by the roadside, but most often in old birch stumps in small 

 woods. They are very cleanly in their habits at all times. 

 This is well shown by the condition of the nests even when 

 a stump of small diameter is occupied by a large number 

 of young. 



The Wren family is a very musical one. Of our several 

 representatives, the best known is that boisterous species 

 known as the HOUSE WREN, or more familiarly as 



