Wren-Tits 697 



or three broods are often reared in a season. Similar in appearance, but with a 

 relatively shorter tail and very different habits, is the Winter Wren (Nannus 

 hiemalis), which summers mainly from the northern border of the United States 

 northward, and winters considerably to the southward. It frequents swamps, 

 woods, and tangled undergrowth, darting in and out of brush piles, stone walls, 

 etc., and has an astonishingly loud ringing song, of which Florence Merriam 

 Bailey says, "Full of trills, runs, and grace notes, it is a tinkling, rippling 

 roundelay." 



American Marsh Wrens. The only other New World forms that there is 

 space to mention are the active little Marsh Wrens (Cistothorus and Telmatodytes), 

 of which there are a dozen forms. They are of diminutive size, brown above, 

 with the back streaked with black and white and the lower parts whitish or 

 buffy. They frequent marshes, where among the tangled reeds and cat-tails 

 they find congenial shelter, building a globular nest of grasses, etc., with an en- 

 trance on one side, attached to reeds and bushes or in tussocks of grass; the 

 eggs are five to nine in number, pure white, or white more or less densely specked 

 with lavender or brown. The Short-billed Marsh Wren (C. stellaris) has the 

 bill much shorter than the head, while the Long-billed form (T. palustris) has 

 the bill as long as the head. 



European Wren. Of the Old World species we may mention the European 

 Wren (Nannus troglodytes] of northern and central Europe, which belongs to 

 the same genus as our Winter Wren (N. hiemalis} and is not greatly different. 

 This charming little bird is a great favorite with the English people, frequenting 

 gardens, orchards, deep woods, open commons, hedgerows, rocky shores, 

 swamps, mountains, and in fact all situations are alike congenial. It is a resi- 

 dent throughout the year in the British Islands, and sings as blithely in cold as 

 in warm weather, its song being, as Mr. Hudson says, "a loud, bright lyric, the 

 fine, clear, high-pitched notes and trills issuing in a continuous rapid stream." 

 Other related species range through eastern Siberia, central Asia, Japan, China, 

 etc. 



Two other genera of Old World Wrens are worthy of brief mention, Uro- 

 cichla, which possess a tail of only ten feathers instead of the normal number 

 of twelve (the three forms are confined to India), and Pnapyga, in which there 

 are but six tail-feathers, and these so short as to be entirely concealed from 

 view by the long and ample rump-feathers; the five forms range from the Hima- 

 layas to Java and Sumatra. 



THE WREN-TITS 



(Family Chamceidce) 



But for the fact that this is the only family of land birds inhabiting the 

 entire Nearctic region, its members would hardly be worthy of mention. It com- 

 prises only a single genus (Ckamaa) with one species and two or three geo- 

 graphical races, all occurring within the state of California. They are small 



