HOUSE WEEN 



45 



the modest Grouse and Quail, very different 

 from the long ones of the more aspiring Doves, 

 Hummingbirds and Swifts (see Fig. 19 and Fig. 

 100, p. 190). They are jolly little tots, always full 

 of business, but still more 

 full of song. The Crow, 

 the Quail, and the Dove 

 talk, and the Humming- 

 bird and Swift sing ac- 

 cording to their light 

 and vocal anatomy, but 



the Wrens and Catbirds are the only birds we have 

 mentioned thus far who are on the list of noted 



FIG. 18. 

 Short, round wing of Wren. 



FIG. 19. 

 Long, slender wing of Swift. 



songsters. The House Wren is one of the most 

 tireless of his family, fairly bubbling over with 

 happiness and music all the day long. In north- 

 ern New York he is not often seen, but on a visit 

 to Vassar I remember coming face to face with a 

 preoccupied bit of a Wren perched on a fence post, 

 singing away with more gusto than if delivering 

 an oration. At Farmington, Connecticut, the 

 Wren is an established villager, so used to worldly 

 amusements he will make love and discuss nest- 



