especially encouraged ; the House Wren 

 is especially fitted to do work among the 

 shrubbery of orchards, gardens and 

 yards, and these, particularly, should be 

 the foci of its labors." Such places, too, 

 are the choice of the Wrens, and if given 

 places to nest in such localities they will 

 be quite sure to occupy them. 



It is quite difficult to enumerate all 

 the kinds of sites that are acceptable to 

 the Wrens for homes. The more com- 

 mon sites are hollows in orchard trees, 

 bird-boxes, holes and crevices or any 

 protected places about buildings, holes 

 in posts, and fence rails, and, in fact, any 

 nook the entrance of which will admit 

 them. They have been known to nest in 

 discarded tin cans, in an old teapot, be- 

 tween the window sash and the blinds, 

 and in many other peculiar places. No 

 matter where the nesting site is located, 

 it is bravely defended against all bird in- 

 truders. 



While the geographical range of the 

 House Wrens is quite large, extending 

 over eastern North America from Man- 

 itoba and Southern Ontario southward 

 and west to Illinois and Louisiana, they 

 are somewhat local in their distribution, 

 for in the selection of haunts they are 

 astonishingly particular. They are resi- 

 dent throughout the year from about the 

 latitude of South Carolina southward. 



In addition to its scolding notes, the 

 House Wren has a beautiful song. It is 

 a "merry little roundelay — a forcible, 

 voluble gush of hurried contentment," 

 and it is at its best during the time of 

 courtship and while he is preparing a 



home for his mate. The male is too 

 busy, too full of life to sing long at a 

 time, but he keeps up a constant chatter- 

 ing as he moves from place to place. Mr. 

 Chapman has well described his vocal 

 efforts. He says : "The song of the 

 House Wren is delivered with charac- 

 teristic energy — a sudden outpouring of 

 music which completely dominates the 

 singer, who with raised head and droop- 

 ing tail trembles with the violence of his 

 effort." Reverend Herbert Langille is 

 very enthusiastic in his description of the 

 song. He says : "Of all the songs of 

 bir.ds within the range of our acquaint- 

 ance, there is no melody more gushing, 

 more sparkling, more full of the very 

 soul of vital energy than the warbling, 

 twittering performance of this most act- 

 ive and industrious little creature. If 

 the syllables have not that measured ca- 

 dence, nor the tones, that heart-searching 

 vibration, which moves one to melan- 

 choly, or to joy, to prayer or to praise, it 

 touches the nerves with a startling im- 

 pulse, like the gust of the summer wind 

 shaking the leaves, the patter of rain on 

 the roof, or the streaming of sunshine 

 through a rift of the clouds." Mrs. Olive 

 Thorne Miller listened to the song of the 

 House Wren and wrote : "Never did a 

 personage of his inches pour out such a 

 flood of rapture. It was luxury to lie 

 and listen to the gushing, liquid melody 

 that floated into the window at my head." 

 After the mating is over and the bird- 

 bride of the happy Wren in installed in 

 their home, he still sings, but his song is 

 more subdued and not so vivacious. 



IMMORTELLE. 



Unto the last the world's best hearts will sing 

 Of sun and star in boundless sky, and rose, beneath ; 

 These songs will live for aye, and doubtless bring 

 Full fund of happiness to Life ; to Death, Love's wreath. 



— C. Leon Brumbaugh. 



