BIRDS OF NEW YORK 479 



orchards. The wrens are among our most exclusively insectivorous birds, 

 and undoubtedly do a great amount of good about the thicker portions 

 of the garden shrubbery and hedges where few other birds glean their 

 livelihood. The especial value of the wren, as shown by examination of 

 its stomach contents, may be found in the Yearbook of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture for 1895, pages 416-18; and in bulletin 17 of 

 the Biological Survey, pages 45-46 and 416-18. 



Thryothorus ludovicianus ludovicianus (Latham) 

 Carolina Wren 



Plate 102 



Sylvia ludoviciana Latham. Index Orn. 1 790. 2 : 548 



Troglodytes ludovicianus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 55, fig. 94 

 Thryothorus ludovicianus ludovicianus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 

 3. 1910. p. 337. No. 718 

 thryothorus, from Gr., 8puov, rush, and Oopetv, to jump; ludovicidnus, of Louisiana 



Description. The largest of our wrens. Rufous brown; wings and 

 tail barred with black; a conspicuous white superciliary stripe; under parts 

 buffy to ocherous, becoming nearly white on the throat. 



Length 5.5-6 inches; extent 7.5; wing 2.4; tail 2.2; bill .65; tarsus .75. 



Distribution. The Carolina wren inhabits the eastern United States, 

 breeding from southern Iowa, Ohio, southern Pennsylvania and the lower 

 Hudson and Connecticut valleys to the Gulf States. It is practically 

 resident wherever found. In New York it is confined principally to the 

 lower Hudson valley, especially the western shores of the Hudson, to Staten 

 Island and Long Island, but has been reported occasionally from all portions 

 of the austral zone of New York, especially from Crow hill, Flushing, 

 Roslyn, Westbury station, Bellport, on Long Island; and Gardner's island, 

 where it was found a common resident by Chapman in 1903 (see Bird 

 Lore, 5:175, 182), and was also noted by Bruen in 1904 (Wilson Bulletin 

 50: 18); from Staten Island, Manhattan Island, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, 

 Larchmont, Piermont, Hastings and Inwood in the lower Hudson valley, 

 in all of which localities it has been known to breed, but especially along 



