THREE INTERESTING BIRDS. 27 



thrush's flight song but even more varied. Can it be 

 that demure, sedate little walker, who but a moment be- 

 fore with so little energy opened his bill to let forth his 

 commonplace crescendo ? It is. 



CAROI.INA WREN. 



During the first three w'eeks of March I found the Car- 

 olina Wrens more prominent than at an}' other time. 

 The first I ever saw was dated March 6. To quote my 

 journal — " in grape tangle on or near ground ; flew to the 

 top, then to a tree, and perching in the extreme top, sang 

 his wonderful song— loud, clear, mellow." Of course it 

 was my pleasure that caused me to write thus ; I did not 

 think of writing a field description of him, or of attempt- 

 ing a musical notation of his song or even of giving a syl- 

 labic comparison. Later I was often puzzled by new 

 songs, and when these so frequently turned out to be those 

 of the Carolina Wren, I decided that he possessed an ex- 

 tensive repertoire. Once it was a phrase of seven notes 

 like, " 111 here, what is it you want? " Again a peculiar, 

 gutteral " berutli," on a descending scale, with the second 

 syllable drawn out. This I first heard at an oil derrick, 

 and the gutteral, unbird-like notes mingled strangely with 

 the creaking of the driller, so that it was not until I dis- 

 covered him perched on a low, oil-dripping crosspiece, not 

 a foot above the ground, which 



" like a witch's oils, 



Burnt green, and blue, and white ; " 



it was not until I sa7v him here, half-ventriloquosly uttering 

 those notes, that I could believe a bird was indeed the 

 source of it. But these notes are heard rather infrequent- 

 ly as compared with his cordial-like "tea-kettle, tea-ket- 

 tle, tea-kettle " and " who are you, who are you, who are 

 you." 



