SPECIES 5. SYLVM DOMESTIC^.* 



HOUSE WREN. 

 [Plate VIII. Fig. 3.] 



Mutacilla domestica, (Regulus rufus), BARTRAM, 291. PEALE'S 

 Museum, No. 7283. 



THIS well known and familiar bird arrives in Pennsylvania 

 about the middle of April; and about the eighth or tenth of May, 

 begins to build its nest, sometimes in the wooden cornice un- 

 der the eaves, or in a hollow cherry tree; but most commonly in 

 small boxes, fixed on the top of a pole, in or near the garden, to 

 which he is extremely partial, for the great number of caterpillars 

 and other larvae with which it constantly supplies him. If all these 

 conveniences are wanting, he will even put up with an old hat, 

 nailed on the weather boards, with a small hole for entrance; and 

 if even this be denied him, he will find some hole, corner or 

 crevice about the house, barn or stable, rather than abandon the 

 dwellings of man. In the month of June, a mower hung up his 

 coat, under a shed, near a barn; two or three days elapsed be- 

 fore he had occasion to put it on again; thrusting his arm up 

 the sleeve he found it completely filled with some rubbish, as 

 he expressed it, and, on extracting the whole mass, found it to 

 be the nest of a Wren completely finished, and lined with a 

 large quantity of feathers. In his retreat he was followed by 

 the little forlorn proprietors, who scolded him with great ve- 

 hemence for thus ruining the whole economy of their household 

 affairs. The twigs with which the outward parts of the nest are 

 constructed are short and crooked that they may the better 

 hook in with one another, and the hole or entrance is so much 

 shut up to prevent the intrusion of snakes or cats, that it ap- 

 pears almost impossible the body of the bird could be admitted; 

 * Troglodytes <cdm, VIEILL. Ois. de l\9m. Sept. pi. 107. 



