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ROCK WREN. 
TROGLODYTES OBSOLETUS, Savy. 
PLATE CCCLX. Anputt Femate. 
THis species was discovered by some of Major Lone’s exploring 
party, and first described by Mr Tuomas Say. My friend Tuomas 
Nutratt, who had opportunities of studying its habits, during his 
recent journey in company with Dr Townsenp, has assured me that 
they are very similar to those of the other Wrens. ‘The figure in 
the plate was taken from an adult female, given to me by Mr Nurratt ; 
and I have since then obtained two males. In my drawing the bird 
was represented on a stone, but for the reasons mentioned in my In- 
troduction, my son Vicror Girrorp attached it to the drawing of the 
Winter Wren, so that it now appears perched on a twig, which, how- 
ever, is not a common practice with this species. 
“On the 21st of June,” says Mr Nurtatt, “ on the ledges of the © 
bluffs which border the bottom of Hare’s Fork of the Siskadee (or Co- 
lorado of the West), I heard, and at length saw this curious Mountain 
Wren. Its actions are those of the Carolina species, T'roglodytes ludovici- 
anus. The old female (as I supposed) sat upon a ledge of rock at the head 
of a high ravine in the bluff, cocking her tail, and balancing herself, at the 
same time uttering a tshurr, tshurr, and téaigh, with astrong guttural ac- 
cent, and now and then, when approached, like the common Short-billed 
Marsh Wren, T7roglodytes brevirostris, a quick guttural tshe de de. It has 
also a shrill call at times, as it perches on a stone on the summit of some 
hill, again similar to the note of the Carolina Wren, occasionally inter- 
rupted by a¢shurr. Among these arid and bare hills of the central table- 
land they were quite common. The old ones were feeding and watching 
a brood of four or five young, which, though fully grown, were protected 
and cherished with the querulous assiduity so characteristic of the other 
Wrens. They breed under the rocky ledges where we so constantly 
observed them, under which they skulk at once when surprised, and 
pertinaciously hide in security, like so many rats. Indeed so sudden- 
ly do they disappear among the rocks, and remain so silent in their re- 
treat, that it is scarcely possible to believe them beneath your feet till 
