A House Wren Record 



By HUBERT PRESCOTT, Ashland, Oregon 

 With a photograph by the author 



A' 



HOUSE WREN 



iPRIL 15, 1915: A pair of House 

 Wrens began to build in a bird- 

 house under the eaves of our 

 wood-shed. After the nest had been com- 

 pleted and the eggs laid, for some reason 

 I did not see the Wrens around the wood- 

 shed any more; and a pair of Wrens, 

 which I supposed were the same pair 

 that built in the bird-house on the wood- 

 shed, were starting to make a nest in 

 another bird-house on a fence-post. 



After several days of watching, I 

 made sure that the Wrens were not occu- 

 pying the box on the wood-shed, and I 

 took it down. It contained six completely 

 broken eggs and the mother Wren, 

 which had caught her foot in horse-hair 

 and starved to death. The father Wren 

 had then found another mate, and they 

 had begun to make a new home in the other bird-house. 



This bird-house was not more than five feet from the ground, and the top 

 opened so that the nest and eggs could be seen and the birds photographed 

 conveniently. 



The Wrens were very fearless, and I could stand within less than a yard of 

 their bird-house in order to take their pictures while they were carrying nest 

 material. 



Three eggs were laid in their new nest, but the mother bird did not brood 

 them. One day I looked in the bird-house and the eggs were gone. The hole 

 in the bird-house was too small for a weasel or other birds to get in, so I knew it 

 must have been the Wrens. Next they removed the lining of the nest, and in a 

 few days relined it and six eggs were laid. 



A few days after that, I erected a bird-house on a fifteen-foot pole. The 

 instinct of the Wrens led them to the higher and safer place, and they left the 

 nest of six eggs, perhaps because I was around too much, making them uneasy. 

 They rebuilt their nest in the bird-house on the pole and hatched a successful 

 brood. 



I wished to secure some photographs of the Wrens feeding their young, 

 and take some records of the food fed. I knew House Wrens well enough to 

 know they^ would not leave their young, or even their eggs, if they didn't 



(360) 



