WEENS. 79 



uttered like dissyllabic Avords, bubbling out and effer- 

 vescing as though the little body had been charged 

 with musical carbonic acid gas. Few other native birds 

 show such fondness for the companionship of man. 

 About country houses and village lawns he is the 

 commonest of the native birds. Before the sparrow 

 pest became so general, he was very abundant in cities, 

 often occupying the little bird houses attached to trees 

 or buildings, or making his nest in some niche in the 

 wall, where often two broods were raised in one season. 

 Unlike many other birds, the house wren sings most 

 near its nest. If the nest is in the dry limb of a tree, 

 you will hear the male bird only a few feet from the 

 structure, above it, below it, or on one side, changing 

 continually his place and attitude, ap])earing only intent 

 to utter the greatest number of songs in the shortest 

 possible time. If the nest is placed in a stump, then he 

 will do most of his singing from this or from an adjoin- 

 ing stum]:). When he builds in a cranny or niche of the 

 wall of a dwelling, he will sing by the hour from the 

 roof, going from gable to gable on the ridge, stopping 

 occasionally to scold at the dog or cat below. The roof 

 of the country barn is one of his favorite perches, when 

 he has a nest near by. Sometimes he builds sham 

 nests not very far from the one containing the treasures 

 of eggs or young; these are only "make believes," 

 never finished, and with no attempt at concealment. 



Whether he does this extra Avork for pastime in the 

 exaberance of spirits, or as a stratagem to divert 

 attention from the real nest, is a question. In a stumpy 



