> yr. - * se 
- rs 
176 HOUSE WREN. 
only long enough to give voice to his feelings in fidgetty, 
scolding notes, or an effervescing, musical trill, with the 
force of which his small body trembles. It is a wonder- — 
ful outburst of song, and the diminutive singer’s enthu- 
siasm and endurance are even more remarkable. The 
song occupies about three seconds, and I have heard a 
Wren, in response to a rival, sing at the rate of ten songs 
a minute for two hours at a time. ‘ 
The House Wren nests in alinost any kind of suitable 
hole or cavity, and will frequently take possession of a— 
bird box, if the House Sparrows have not already set up 
a claim to the same property. To prevent intrusion from 
the Sparrows, the entrance to the house should be made 
not larger than a quarter of a dollar. Whatever be 
the site the Wrens select, their surplus energy is em- 
ployed in completely filling it with twigs, half a bushelful 
being sometimes brought with endless pains. The nest 
proper is composed of dried grasses, and is placed in the 
center of this mass. Even in egg-laying the exhaustléss 
vitality of Wrens is shown, as many as six or eight eggs 
being deposited. In color they are uniformly and mi- 
nutely speckled with pinkish brown. 
The House Wren arrives from the South late in April - 
and remains until October. Shortly before its departure 
in the fall a Wren comes from the 
Sauer kai. North that resembles the House Wren > 
in appearance, but is smaller and has 
the under parts pale brown, the breast and belly being 
finely barred with a darker shade of the same color. 
This is the Winter Wren, a bird that nests from north- 
ern New England northward and southward along the 
crests of the Alleghanies to North Carolina. It remains 
with us in small numbers throughout the winter, return- 
ing to its summer home in April. Mr. Burroughs writes 
of the Winter Wren’s song as a “ wild, sweet, rhythmical 
