CHAPTER XVI 



House Wren: Troglodytes Aedon 



IN BIRD-HOUSES 



FROM their continu- 

 ous strongly exhibited 

 preference for homes 

 close or beneath the shel- 

 ter of men, these birds, 

 as no others, have be- 

 come the birds of the 

 home. I cannot recol- 

 lect one summer of my 

 childhood when the front 

 door of a Wren's house 

 failed to be a knot-hole 

 in the weather boarding 

 over our kitchen door, while the last perching place on their 

 going to, and the first of their coining from, their entrance was an 

 ornamental acorn on the top of the pump. Each nesting season 

 my mother sternly threatened should be their last, as every year 

 they carried much new material; because the knot-hole was so 

 small, they dropped many twigs, much grass, weed-stalks, and 

 many feathers before our door. During their building time, as a 

 protection to them, I spent much of my time on the back porch 

 sweeping away the debris they dropped at the entrance, so that 

 my mother seldom saw the worst of it. As the years passed, I 



217 



MOTHER WREN CARRYING WORM TO YOUNG 



