416 NOTES ON THE 
THRYOTHORUS BEWICKIL (Aupuzoy). (719.) 
BEWICK’S WREN. 
Arrives in Minnesota generally about the 20th of April, but 
varies materially with the seasons. It is a very sweet singer, 
although not equal to the House or the Carolina Wren. 
About the 20th of May, but not infrequently somewhat 
earlier, they build their nests in stumps, knot-holes in the 
trees, hollow logs, ete., of the same materials as the other 
wrens employ, and lay from five to seven white eggs, speckled 
with light shades of brown, which are most numerous about 
the larger end. While this species occasionally visits our 
shrubbery and berry bushes of our gardeners, it is essentially 
a denizen of the forest, especially the brushland borders, in 
the vicinity of streams of water and lakes. Of the identity of 
this species there is not the shadow of a question, but of its 
relative representation there is considerable. As far back as 
1874, it was not unusual in my experience to bag two or three 
of them in a few hours general collection, and subsequently in 
company with Mr. W. L. Tiffany (to whom I have elsewhere 
referred) spend several hours in extensive comparisons. Few 
of my correspondents report this wren, and I cannot regard it 
as quite as common as I believed it would be found. It is, 
however, a well represented and fairly distributed species in 
many of the timbered sections. They retire southward by the 
10th of September in ordinary seasons. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill shorter than head; tail longer than wings, much grad- 
uated; upper parts rufous brown, beneath plumbeous white; a 
white streak over the eye, the feathers edged above with 
brown; exposed surface of wings and innermost tail feathers 
closely barred with dusky; remaining tail feathers mostly 
black, barred or blotched with white at tips, and on the whole 
outer web of the exterior feather and under tail coverts. 
Length, 5.50; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.50. 
Habitat, eastern United States to Plains. 
TROGLODYTES AEDON Vieruuor. (721.) 
HOUSE WREN. 
Notwithstanding the tendency of the systematists in the 
literature of American Ornithology to keep the typical House 
Wren restricted to more eastern limits, I am able to assure them 
that it is a regular summer resident of Minnesota. I have so 
