HOUSE WREN. 173 



it is also migratory ; and has the tail and bill much longer. Its food 

 is insects and caterpillars, and while supplying the wants of its young, 

 it destroys, on a moderate calculation, many hundreds a day, and 

 greatly circumscribes the ravages of these vermin. It is a bold and in- 

 solent bird against those of the Titmouse or Woodpecker kind that ven- 

 ture to build within its jurisdiction ; attacking them without hesitation, 

 though twice its size, and generally forcing them to decamp. I have 

 known him drive a pair of swallows from their newly formed nest, and 

 take immediate possession of the premises, in which his female also laid 

 her eggs and reared her young. Even the Blue-bird, who claims an 

 equal, and sort of hereditary right to the box in the garden, when at- 

 tacked by this little impertinent, soon relinquishes the contest, the mild 

 placidness of his disposition not being a match for the fiery impetuosity 

 of his little antagonist. With those of his own species, who settle and 

 build near him, he has frequent squabbles ; and when their respective 

 females are sitting, each strains his whole powers of song to excel the 

 other. When the young are hatched, the hurry and press of business 

 leave no time for disputing, so true it is that idleness is the mother of 

 mischief. These birds are not confined to the country ; they are to be 

 heard on the tops of the houses in the most central part of our cities, 

 singing with great energy. Scarce a house or cottage in the country is 

 without at least a pair of them, and sometimes two ; but unless where 

 there is a large garden, orchard, and numerous outhouses, it is not often 

 the case that more than one pair reside near the same spot, owing to 

 their party disputes and jealousies. It has been said by a friend to 

 this little bird, that " the esculent vegetables of a whole garden may, 

 perhaps, be preserved from the depredations of different species of 

 insects, by ten or fifteen pair of these small birds,"* and probably they 

 might, were the combination practicable ; but such a congregation of 

 Wrens, about one garden, is a phenomenon not to be expected but from 

 a total change in the very nature and disposition of the species. 



Having seen no accurate description of this bird in any European 

 publication, I have confined my references to Mr. Bartram and Mr. 

 Peale ; but though Europeans are not ignorant of the existence of this 

 bird, they have considered it, as usual, merely as a slight variation from 

 the original stock (M. troglodytes), their own Wren ; in which they are, 

 as usual, mistaken ; the length and bent form of the bill, its notes, 

 migratory habits, long tail, and red eggs, are sufficient specific dif- 

 ferences. 



The House Wren inhabits the whole of the United States, in all of 

 which it is migratory. It leaves Pennsylvania in September ; I have 

 sometimes, though rarely, seen it in the beginning of October. It is 



* Barton's Fragments, Part i., p. 22. 



