BII&S OF PENNSYLVANIA. 309 



Thryothorus bewickii (AuD.). 



Bewick's Wren. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"Above dark rufous-brown ; rump and middle tail-feathers sometimes a little 

 paler, and very slightly tinged with gray and together with the exposed surface of 

 secondaries distinctly barred with dusky. Beneath soiled plumbeous-whitish ; 

 flanks brown. Crissum banded ; ground color of quills and tail-feathers brownish- 

 black. Length 5.50; wing 2.25 ; tail 2.50. Length from nostril .39 ; along gape .70." 

 (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



Habitat. 'Eastern United States, to Eastern Texas and the eastern border of the 

 Plains ; north to New Jersey and Minnesota. 



Hare summer resident in the eastern and central portions of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and not reported as occurring' in any of the northern counties, but 

 in some of the southwestern counties, beyond the mountains, it is said 

 to be tolerably frequent. From personal observation I am unable to give 

 any information concerning 1 this species, relative to which the following 

 interesting remarks are borrowed from Robert Ridg-way's Ornithology of 

 Illinois : " No bird more deserves the protection of man than Bewick's 

 Wren. He does not need man's encouragement, for he comes of his own 

 accord and installs himself as a member of the community wherever it 

 suits his taste. He is found about the cow-shed and barn along- with the 

 Pewee and Barn Swallow ; he investig-ates the pig--sty ; then explores 

 the g-arden fence, and finally mounts to the roof and pours forth one of 

 the sweetest song-s that ever was heard. Not a voluble g-abble, like the 

 House Wren's merry roundelay, but a fine, clear, bold song-, uttered as 

 the sing-er sits with head thrown back and long- tail pendent, a song 

 which may be heard a quarter of a mile or more, and in comparison 

 with which the faint chant of the Song- Sparrow sinks into insignifi- 

 cance. The ordinary note is a soft low plit, uttered as the bird hops 

 about, its long- tail carried erect or even leaning- forward, and jerked to 

 one side at short intervals. In its movements it is altogether more de- 

 liberate than either T. ludovicianus or T. aedon, but nothing- can excel 

 it hi quickness when it is pursued. 



" The nest of Bewick's Wren is placed in all sorts of odd places. Usu- 

 ally it is in a mortise-hole of a beam or joist, or some well-concealed 

 corner. One was beneath the board covering- of an ash-hopper ; another 

 in a joint of stove pipe which lay horizontally across two joists in the 

 g-arret of a smoke-house ; a third was behind the weather-boarding- of 

 an ice-house, while a fourth was in the bottom of the conical portion of 

 a quail-net that had been hung up against the inner side of a buggy- 

 shed. None of these nests would have been found had not the bird been 

 seen to enter. The nest is generally very bulky, though its size is regu- 

 lated by that of the cavity in which it is placed. Its materials consist 

 of sticks, straw, coarse feathers, fine chips, etc., matted together with 



