274 THE INVITATION. 



for instance, has properly no congener. The 

 famous mocking-bird of the Southern States 

 belongs to a genus which has but two other 

 representatives in the Atlantic States, name- 

 ly, the cat-bird and the long-tailed or ferru- 

 ginous thrush. 



The wrens are a large and interesting 

 family, and as songsters are noted for viva- 

 city and volubility. The more common spe- 

 cies are the house-wren, the wood-wren, the 

 marsh-wren, the great Carolina wren, and 

 the winter-wren, the latter perhaps deriving 

 its name from the fact that it breeds in the 

 North. It is an exquisite songster, and 

 pours forth its notes so rapidly and with 

 such sylvan sweetness and cadence, that it 

 seems to go off like a musical alarm. 



Wilson called the kinglets wrens, but they 

 have little to justify the name, except their 

 song, which is of the same continuous, gush- 

 ing, lyrical character as that referred to 

 above. Dr. Brewer was entranced with the 

 song of one of these tiny minstrels in the 

 woods of New Brunswick, and thought he 

 had found the author of the strain of the 

 black-poll warbler. He seems loath to be- 

 lieve that a bird so small as either of the 

 kinglets could possess such vocal powers. It 



