294 



Trees, Stars, and Birds 



FIG. 179. The cotton-boll 

 weevil. The members of 

 the weevil family are char- 

 acterized by the long pro- 



the house wren, and its color is a brighter reddish 

 brown. It has a white throat and a white line over the 

 eye. In the Southern states it is 

 common, and it occasionally nests 

 as far north as the lower Connecti- 

 cut and Hudson River valleys and 

 the vicinity of Lake Erie. In the 

 woods these birds attract attention 

 by their nervous activity, loud and 

 lively song, or variety of clear, ringing 

 boscis, by which they can whistles, which remind the listener 

 ifiSSE^S of the whistle of a tufted titmouse. 

 They sing every month in the year. 

 The Carolina wren should be highly prized wherever 

 cotton is raised, for it eats the boll weevil, besides insects 

 that destroy various other crops. The Florida wren, 

 which is found only in that state, is slightly larger and 

 darker than the Carolina wren. 



Other species of wrens. Over the western and south- 

 western section of the United States a number of other 

 kinds of wrens are found ; several species of marsh wrens 

 live in different parts of the country ; and in the Eastern 

 and Central states there is a wren that winters as far north 

 as Massachusetts and Illinois, while a different winter 

 wren lives in the West. All these wrens are small, 

 brownish birds, resembling in many ways the house wren 

 that is so well known. 



