278 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



Other common names by which it is known are 

 "mocking wren" and "large wood wren," while its 

 long Latin name is Thryothorus ludovicianus (Gmelin), 

 the first part of which is derived from two Greek 

 words meaning "reed" and "leaping," while the last 

 or specific name is the Latin for " of Louisiana," from 

 which region the bird was first described. 



Its chosen haunts are the wooded or rocky banks of 

 streams, piles of logs and brush heaps in clearings, or 

 the zigzag lines of the old rail fences with their cor- 

 ners full of bushy shrubs and fallen weeds; indeed, 

 wherever nature, accident, or design has provided a 

 place where it can make itself conspicuous one instant 

 and be entirely concealed the next. There, too, hidden 

 beneath lichens, in the depths of fungi, or in the cracks 

 and crannies of rail or log, its favorite food, spiders, 

 ants and gnats abound. Its thick-set, bulk}' body, 

 short wings and 'tail, and slender, slightly curved bill, 

 are especially adapted to an insectivorous life close to 

 the ground. The wren, therefore, is seldom if ever 

 seen in the tops of tall trees, but sometimes ascends 

 their trunks for quite a distance, peering beneath 

 every piece of loose bark and entering every knot- 

 hole through which it can squeeze its body, in search 

 of its esteemed spider diet. 



The nest of this bird is a bulky structure, composed 

 of strips of bark and corn stalks, grasses, leaves and 

 fibrous roots, and usually lined with feathers, corn 

 silk, or horse hairs. It is placed in any odd nook or 

 cranny that its owner fancies, such as the cavity of a 

 log or stump, the angle of a fence between the lower 

 rails, in a pile of logs or brush anywhere, in fact, that 



