A SWEET-VOICED WREN. 



Almost everybody recognizes a wren at sight, 

 on account of certain family traits that cannot be 

 mistaken and that distinguish him from all other 

 birds. A part, if not all, of the plumage of the 

 wrens is more or less thickly barred ; they have a 

 quaint habit of flirting their tails when you ap- 

 proach them, and there is something peculiar about 

 their trim figures, in spite of minor differences 

 among the various species, that at once betrays 

 their identity. But few persons are aware that 

 there are so many different kinds of wrens. The 

 wren family on this continent alone comprises six 

 genera and thirty-three species. Comparatively 

 few of them, however, are to be found in a single 

 locality. 



You will find a great deal said in popular works 

 on ornithology about the Carolina wren, the house 

 wren, and the winter wren ; but the little feath- 

 ered companion of which I am about to tell you 

 is seldom mentioned. He is called Bewick's wren, 



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