NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 473 



variety of notes, the principal song being much like that of the Song Sparrow, 

 but sweeter. The nest of this Wren, besides being built in Woodpeckers' 

 excavations and natural cavities of trees, is likewise placed in hollow logs, 

 under brush-heaps, or in any nook or corner about a deserted building, and, when in 

 a cavity, the space which it occupies is generally well filled with roots, straws and 

 grasses, lined with fur or feathers. The nest is also frequently built among the twigs 

 of dense thorny bushes. Two or three broods are reared in a season. The eggs are 

 usually five to seven in number, white, speckled with chestnut or reddish-brown 

 and lavender-gray, heavier at the larger ends, and massed there in distinct, broad 

 bands. Three sets of these eggs from Comal county, Texas, are in Mr. Norris* 

 cabinet; two of seven eggs each were taken April 4 and 25, respectively; the third, 

 containing five eggs, was collected June 21. The sizes by sets in their order are as 

 follows: .65x.50, .64x.49, ,64x.49, .68x.50, .65x.49, .63x.48, .65x.50; .71x.51, .71x.50, 

 .69x.51, .71x.51, .70x.52, .72x.52, .71x.52; .65x.50, .66x.51, .64x.52, .66x.53, .67x.52; average 

 .64x.46 inches. 



719. 1. SAN CLEMENTE WREN. Thryothorus leucophrys Anthony. Geog. 

 Dist. San Clemente Island, California. 



This species is found on San Clemente Island, California. In its habits it is 

 similar to Baird's Wren, and its eggs, I am informed, are also "very much the same 

 in color and size." For a description of the bird Cf. Anthony, Auk, January, 1895, 

 p. 52. 



720. GTJADALUPE WREN. Thryothorus brevicauda Ridgw. Geog. Dist. 



Guadalupe Island, Lower California. 



I believe the nests and eggs of this bird remain undescribed. 



721. HOUSE WREN. Troglodytes <vdon Vieill. Geog. Dist. Eastern United 

 States and Southern Canada, west to the Mississippi Valley (Michigan to Louisiana); 

 winters in southern portions. 



A common and well-known bird in Eastern United States. It builds its nest 

 under the eaves of houses, in corners of the barn, martin-boxes, hollows in trees, and, 

 in fact, they are found nesting in every conceivable cavity or crevice. The nest is 

 composed of a mass of miscellaneous rubbish, sticks, grasses, hay and other con- 

 venient materials. If a box or cavity holds a peck the little birds will fill it full. 

 The nesting season begins early in May, and two or three broods are generally reared. 

 Mr. L. O. Pindar, of Hickman, Kentucky, informs me that he saw a pair of these 

 birds nesting n the ground under the floor of a barn, which was elevated four or five 

 inches, and another pair had their nest in a paper bag full of hops, hanging in a 

 neighbor's porch. It has been found nesting in the skulls of horses and oxen lying 

 in grassy fields. Mr. George B. Sennett and Dr. B. H. Warren found a*pair breeding 

 in a Kingfisher's hole in a sand-bank, near Erie, Pennsylvania. August 1. 188 

 eggs are white, with a light tinge of purple, so thickly dotted with reddish-brown a, 

 to nearly conceal the ground-color; they ar6 nearly spherical. to oblong-oval in shape. 

 The eggs are usually seven, sometimes nine, measuring .64x.52, with great variatic 

 in this respect. 



721a PARKMAN'S WREN. Troglodytes cedon .parfcmanii (Aud.) Geog. Dist- 

 Pacific coast region of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and North 

 fornia. 



