CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 699 
72la. Western House Wren. 
Troglodytes aédon Parkman (Aup.) A O. U. List. 1886. 
Observed as far west on the 49th parallel as the confines of the 
Missouri coteau. The westernmost specimens, as well as those from 
the immediate valley of the Red river appear to be typical aédon. 
On the Red river, in June, the species was breeding very abundantly 
in the neighbourhood of the fort and town of Pembina. (Couwes.) 
An abundant summer resident in partly wooded localities. Although 
this bird usually nests in a hollow stump, it is not averse to a different 
situation, provided only that it be a hole, and deep enough and 
narrow enough to exclude any but the owner. If the hole chance 
to be in the least a loose fit, his first care is to blockade the doorway 
with the largest twigs he can carry until he has reduced it to his own 
idea of snugness, and I learned to accept it as the infallible door- 
plate of a wren’s homestead, when a bundle of twigs was seen pro- 
jecting from a cranny in some decrepit looking stump, hollow rail or 
a knot-hole in an outhouse. (FE. T. Seton.) A common summer 
resident at Aweme, Manitoba; arrives about September 2oth. 
(Criddle.) Everywhere abundant in Manitoba and breeding as far 
west as Edmonton, Alta. (Atkinson.) Very abundant along the 
creeks in southwestern Saskatchewan. Nests in nearly every avail- 
able hollow in box elders. (A.C. Bent.) One specimen of this wren 
was procured by Mr. Drummond at the foot of the Rocky mountains, 
but no others were seen by any of us to the eastward. (Rtchardson.) 
Frequently seen at Prince Albert, Sask., in summer. (Coubeaux.) 
First seen at Medicine Hat, Sask., May 15th, 1894; common by the 
20th; abundant at Crane lake, Skuli creek and east end of Cypress 
hills in June, breeding in holes in poplar trees and an occasional 
telegraph pole at Crane lake; this species was found breeding in holes 
in trees at Old Wives lakes, Sask., and at Wood mountain, in June, 
1895; later, another nest was taken in a hole in a clay bank along 
Frenchman river, Sask.; not rare in the wooded ravines on the 
south side of the Cypress hills; a nest was taken built in a barn 
swallow’s nest on Sucker creek, which is the source of Frenchman 
river; it was common on Spur creek, Milk river, Milk- river ridge, 
St. Mary river and Lee creek, southern Alberta; common from the 
mouth of Lesser Slave river to Peace River Landing; breeding in 
holes in trees and in the sandstone cliffs and cut banks of Peace river, 
