The Birds' Calendar 



in the winter wren is comically short, and 

 standing quite erect gives the little creature a 

 peculiarly pert and saucy air, which seemed to 

 Shakespeare so salient a feature when he alluded 



to 



" The wren with little quill." 



There is an electric suddenness in the motion 

 of a wren which makes you suspect the identity 

 of the bird before you clearly see it almost 

 literally "as quick as a flash. " It is a specimen 

 of highly concentrated nervous energy, bottled 

 almost to bursting, explosively relieved in ac- 

 tion and song a bit of champagne with wings. 

 The winter wren is the more northern species, 

 the house wren the more southern, although 

 there is no propriety in designating the latter as 

 a house -vren, as it is no more inclined to do- 

 mestication than the other. 



A migration-wave in the second week brought 

 the yellow -throated vireos, the chestnut-sided 

 warblers (male and female), another thrush 

 the olive-backed the blue-winged yellow war- 

 bler, and the indigo-bird. By the middle of 

 the month our constant winter friends, the 

 white-throated sparrows, had become a thing a' 



'58 



