THE OOLOGIST 



213 



participate in an annual family reun- 

 ion which is a thing established for 

 many years past. From December 

 23d to January 3d I can be found at 

 the Virginia Hotel, Long Beach, Cali- 

 fornia, at which place I would be 

 pleased to meet all Californians inter- 

 ested in our publication personally, or 

 hear from them at their leisure. 



R. M. BARNES. 



Nesting of Florida Wren. 



During the season of 1909 the writ- 

 er made a special study of the habits 

 of this sociable wren, Thryothorus lud- 

 ovicianus miamensis. 



Sixty nests in all were observed 

 during the year and some very inter- 

 esting facts were brought to light. 



This wren is a resident with us here 

 in Florida and is on hand every morn- 

 ing rolling out his rich full song be- 

 fore most mortals are ready to get 

 up. There was a peach tree within 

 three feet of my bedroom window and 

 this was the favorite place for the 

 morning concert of one very sociable 

 little fellow. It hardly seems possible 

 that so much sound can come from 

 such a small bird and when they are 

 breeding they seem to be singing con- 

 tinually all day, but the pair are very 

 seldom tcgether when singing, one 

 will be off a few hundred feet and 

 they will sing to each other, the riiale 

 with the strongest song and the fe- 

 male will answer as soon as he is 

 through and makes one think of an 

 echo. About March 15 I noticed that 

 this particular pair were looking for 

 a nesting site, they were in the house 

 the greater part of the time, peering 

 in clcsets, and back of jars on the 

 shelves, and all the time they would 

 keep up the most cheerful twittering 

 to themselves. They seem to be as 

 much at ease when standing with their 

 heads down as any other way and re- 

 minds one of the Chicadee in this re- 



spect. I was very busy at this time 

 and did not succeed in finding the 

 nest of this pair until they had laid 

 three eggs, so waited until they fin- 

 ished the set of five which I colected 

 on the 27th of March. This nest was 

 built under the kitchen on top of one 

 of the piers and was a typical nest so 

 will describe it. The outside was 

 made of coarse grass and weed stems 

 and some finer twigs, next came a lay- 

 er of finer grass and some string, 

 fine pieces of cloth and some cotton 

 batting, this was followed by a lin- 

 ing of horsehair and dry snaix skin, 

 in this respect, like the Crested Fly- 

 catcher. Ninety per cent, of the 

 wrens nest examined by me this year 

 had this dry snaix skin in the lining. 

 The nest was built in the corner next 

 the sill and the opening was at an 

 angle of about 45 degrees. In fact, 

 practically all nests of this species 

 are built at this angle. 



On the 30th after collecting this set 

 I noticed that this pair were spending 

 a great deal of their i my hen 



house and upon investigation I found 

 no suitable corner for them, so p''^ 

 up an empty peach c: and .in looking 

 in there on the seco -^v following 



found that they had completed' their 

 nest in this can. I watched this 

 daily now and found that the first egg 

 was laid on April 6 and laid about 10 

 a. m. and an egg was deposited daily 

 from this on until the set of 5 were 

 laid. The female began setting im- 

 mediately after finishing the laying 

 and set exactly fourteen days before 

 hatching. During the time of incuba- 

 tion the male was very attentive, sing- 

 ing for hours within a few yards of 

 the nest, he would sometime relieve 

 his mate at the setting job, more espe- 

 cially after the 10th day. On one oc- 

 casion I noticed him feed his mate 

 while she was on the nest. The fe- 

 male became very tame and often al- 



