WINTER WREN 559 



has nested near Bower Cave. With so many seemingly favorable localities 

 in the region it is surprising that other instances of summer occurrence 

 have not been noted. 



The winter range includes such stations as Yosemite Valley, El Portal, 

 and Dudley, on Smith Creek, six miles east of Coulterville. An individual 

 bird collected at Ten Lakes on October 9, 1915, is the basis of our earliest 

 record for the species outside the local breeding area; this bird may have 

 been only a transient, for this locality is in the Hudsonian Zone. It seems 

 unlikely that the species could winter successfully in the territory above 

 the Transition Zone. 



Individuals were observed along the Wawona road near Chinquapin, 

 November 26, 1914, and on the South Fork of the Tuolumne River at 

 the Hog Ranch road, October 15, 1915. These birds also may have moved 

 to lower stations with the coming of the heavy snows later in the winter. 



The number of individuals present in winter, while greatly exceeding 

 the summer population, is not large as compared with the numbers of other 

 species of birds. On Sweetwater Creek, late in October, 1915, 3 Western 

 Winter Wrens were living within a stretch of about 400 feet of caiion 

 bottom; but this was an exceptional concentration. Elsewhere there is 

 perhaps not more than one every two or three hundred yards. 



Wrens as a group are possessed of mercurial temperaments and the 

 Winter Wren is among the most 'nervous' of its kind. The bird seems 

 never to be quiet, but is constantly twitching about from side to side, 

 frequently bobbing down and up, always with the short tail cocked at a 

 decided angle with the back. The bird seems to skip along and uses both 

 the short wings and long legs in all its ordinary movements. It seems 

 equally at ease on a nearly vertical twig and on a horizontal root or branch- 

 let. A great deal of its foraging is done in under the overhanging banks. 

 Quite often the bird is lost to the observer's sight amid the crannies and 

 shadows about the base of some large stream-side tree, and comes into 

 view only now and then. 



The song is difficult to describe. It consists of a number of notes run 

 together quickly with no rests within the song itself. Some one has com- 

 pared the Winter Wren's song to the noise made by a squeaking gate hinge, 

 but the comparison is not a specially happy one. The song is heard some- 

 times during the winter months, and commonly, as is indicated by Mr. 

 Torrey's record, at nesting time. The call note of the species, a short 

 tscliep, is heard more frequently, and throughout the year'; sometimes it 

 is given twice in quick succession. An observer can make a good imitation 

 of the note by drawing the tongue backward from the clenched teeth and 

 closing the lips at the same instant. We have commonly used this sound 

 in attracting a bird for a close view. 



