YOl i907" IV ] Howell and Oldys, The Bewick Wren. 153 



As far as may be safely permitted by this limited, but satisfactory, 

 observation, the Bewick Wren must be accorded high rank as a 

 singer. 1 Its voice has not the ringing quality of that of the Carolina 

 Wren, nor are its notes always as pure. But though less brilliant 

 in tone than the Carolina Wren and less energetic in style than 

 either that singer or the non-musical House Wren, the Bewick 

 Wren has a sweetness of voice and an ease of delivery that are very 

 attractive, while in versatility it far excels either of the others. 

 And the single song heard that appeared to be its own, uninfluenced 

 by those of other birds, is of a higher order in its musical construc- 

 tion than the simple themes of the Carolina Wren (the House 

 Wren's voluble utterance, though pleasant to hear, bears no 

 resemblance to human music). 



In imitative ability the Bewick Wren has, apparently, no rival 

 among our eastern birds other than the Mockingbird, by which, 

 however, it is greatly excelled. The Carolina Wren and Brown 

 Thrasher seldom imitate other birds, despite a popular belief to the 

 contrary, and the few imitations they give are delivered in their own 

 quality of voice — ■ translations into their own tongue, so to speak. 

 The Catbird attempts imitation more frequently than Thrasher 

 or Carolina Wren, but also renders imitated songs in its own 

 tongue and often merely mingles bits of mimicry with its own 

 disconnected, ejaculatory phrases. The Chat sometimes, though 

 rarely, reproduces other birds' songs fairly well, and a few more 

 birds show traces of the faculty; 2 but none of these is to be com- 

 pared with the Bewick Wren. The latter, during the short period 

 of observation under consideration gave a number of imitations 

 and not only reproduced notes uttered by other birds in the vicinity 

 but performed the more difficult feat of reproducing with a con- 

 siderable degree of exactness the quality of tone in which they were 

 uttered. It seems to be better entitled to the sobriquet of 'Mock- 

 ing Wren,' than the Carolina Wren, on which the name is some- 

 times inappropriately bestowed. 



1 1 have listened many times to the songs of the Texan Bewick Wren, whose 

 musical talents apparently are fully equal to those of the eastern subspecies. The 

 songs given by the Texas birds resembled in form and tone quality the finest song 

 heard from the Petworth Wren, and there was an almost endless variety in the con- 

 struction of the songs. — A. H. H. 



2 I have even heard the English Sparrow give an excellent reproduction of the 

 Carolina Wren's musical alarm note. — H. O. 



