CATHERPES, THE CANON WREN 81 



bird of their desires; for canon wrens, though 

 not so attractive in appearance as some of 

 their highly colored feathered cousins, are really 

 handsome little birds. The body is a beautiful 

 reddish or rusty brown color, rather inconspicu- 

 ously speckled with black and whitish spots 

 and with an almost white, shield-shaped throat 

 and breast patch that immediately attracts 

 attention. The old vernacular name, "white- 

 throated wren/' was not so bad after all; for it 

 pointed out this very prominent field mark 

 which is so useful to the novice observer. 



Remaining deaf to the " seductive summons " 

 which call so many of the other birds to the 

 warm tropic lands during winter, the canon 

 wrens stay with us throughout the year to sing 

 their spirit-moving strains. Their range in- 

 cludes all that territory from the Sierra Nevadas 

 on the west to the eastern boundaries of the 

 Rockies, and from Idaho south to Aguas Calien- 

 tes, Mexico. 1 



The breeding range of the dotted canon wren 

 runs from the cool, rocky gorges close to the 



1 They are resident birds only in the southern part of this 

 region. 



