44 CLASS AVES. r."-^ 



preservation, and " it must be a most wicked and mischievous 

 boy," says Dr. Latham, "who will not pay some sort of 

 deference to a very trite proverb, viz, — ' The robin and the 

 wren are God Almighty's cock and hen.' " 



This species is tolerably extended throughout Europe. 

 But the winters of the north are too rigorous for its consti- 

 tution. It is seldom seen, says Linnaeus, in Sweden and the 

 North of Russia. It is, however, reported to have been 

 found at Oonalashka ; but it is more than doubtful if the 

 species be the same. 



There is a bird in North America, called the Winter Wren, 

 ( T. Hyemalis), which if not of the same species as the last, has 

 certainly very striking analogies with it. Its plumage, 

 conformation, song, and mode of life approximate very closely 

 to those of our European wren. It arrives in the central 

 parts of the United States in autumn, and remains there 

 during the mild winter. It frequents the backs of ditches, 

 ravines, old deracinated stumps, small bushes, and the 

 brambles in aquatic places. It is often observed in rural 

 habitations, where it conceals itself in piles of wood ; but at 

 the end of the bad season it returns northward. According 

 to Wilson, this wren nestles in the mountain-forests of upper 

 Pennsylvania ; others imagine that it does so in countries still 

 more northward, as does the ortolan, and several other birds, 

 which are only seen in winter in the United States. 



The Brown Warbler of our text. House-wren of Wilson, 

 Troglodytes (Edon. Vieil., is another North American bird. 

 Like our common wren, it seems to take great delight in 

 approaching the habitations of man. It is sufficient to 

 procure it the advantages which the building of its nest 

 requires, to be certain of attracting it into a garden, and 

 making it nestle there every year if its brood remains 

 untouched. It merits, in all respects, the attention bestowed 

 upon it by the Americans, for it is in no wise hurtful, living 

 only on larvae, chrysalides, and small insects, and is the only 



