WRENS 589 



Genus OLBIORCHILUS Oberholser. 



722, Olbiorchilus hiemalis (Vieill.). Winter Wren. 



Plumage : dark cinnamon brown above, the wings and tail barred with 

 dusky, and the back rather faintly barred with whitish ; below pale cinnamon 

 brown, the lower breast, sides and belly barred with russet, dull black and 

 white alternating ; throat and breast obscurely white streaked. Wing 1.87 ; 

 tail 1.25 ; culmen 0.36. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, breeding from the northern States 

 northward, and southward along the Alleghany Mountains to South Caro- , 

 Una; wintering from Massachusetts (rarely from southern Maine) to 

 Florida. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; fairly common migrant, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; common summer resident of the deeper woods, (Knight). Cum- 

 berland ; rare migrant, (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, 

 (Sweet). Hancock ; common summer resident of the deeper wilder regions, 

 stragglers winter along coast, (Knight). Kennebec; rare migrant, (Lar- 

 rabee). Knox; winter, (Rackliff). Oxford; breeds commonly, (Nash). 

 Penobscot; common summer resident of the wooded regions, (Knight). 

 Piscataquis; common summer resident, (Homer). Somerset ; quite common 

 summer resident, (Morrell); very common in the northern wilds, (Knight). 

 Waldo ; common summer resident in the wilder regions, stragglers in winter 

 coastwise, (Knight). Washington ; summer resident, not abundant, (Board- 

 man); locally common summer resident in western sections, (Knight). 

 York; migrant, (Adams). 



Mr. Brown in his Catalogue states that the species arrives 

 near Portland about the middle of April and remains about 

 three weeks, while in the fall they appear about the middle of 

 September for a month ''s stop before migrating southward. 

 Near Bangor I have seen the species in migration as early as 

 April first, more often the middle of the month, and they 

 remain until November fifteenth to twentieth in fair numbers. 

 An occasional individual seen in December, January and 

 February here indicates a possibility of their occasionally 

 wintering in the deeper more sheltered woods near Bangor, 

 and I feel sure that an occasional straggler remains along the 

 coast of Hancock and Waldo counties. 



As a breeding bird the species is confined to the Canadian 

 and Hudsonian faunal areas, and in the deeper wilder tracts 

 of northern, western and eastern Maine it is a common summer 



