Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 68 



BIRDS OF THE OZARKS. 



(St. Louis Naturalists' Club, February, 1906.) 



For the bird lover a trip through the Ozarks is one of 

 real delight. A great variety of his feathered friends 

 greet him from all sides, on the high ridges as well as 

 on the hillsides, on the rich flood plains of the valleys and 

 in the picturesque ravines. He has the pleasure of not 

 only finding the different kinds of birds conamon to the 

 rest of the state, but also some southern species which 

 have in the Ozarks the northern limit of their breeding 

 range. Others are so numerous in comparison with adja- 

 cent regions of their occurrence that we may regard the 

 Ozarks as the center of their geographic distribution. 



The best known among the latter is the Bewick's or 

 Long-tailed Wren, which in the Ozark region entirely re- 

 places the ordinary House Wren of northern Missouri 

 and the Eastern States generally. The Bewick's Wren, 

 a name given tlie bird of Audubon in honor of one of his 

 friends in Edinburgh and adopted by all ornithologists, 

 differs from the House Wren in color, size and shape, but 

 it is mainly its long tail and entirely different song by 

 which it is easily distinguished. While the House Wren 

 has only a monotonous, though sprightly, ditty, the 

 Bewick's Wren has a real, modulated song that reminds 

 one very much of the well-known song of the Song Spar- 

 row, but is superior to it in harmony and strength. Any- 

 one who hears the song for the first time stops to listen 

 to the loud, melodious notes, uttered generally from a 

 post or the roof of a building. When hopping about in 

 search of food it holds the long tail up almost perpen- 

 dicularly, but when singing it throws its head backward, 

 pointing its bill straight up and drooping its tail in a 

 pendent position. It likes the proximity of man ; we sel- 

 dom find it far away from human habitation. In the 

 Ozarks, if not driven away, every farm has its pair ; they 

 are familiar objects about the barn, stable and wood 



