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THE HOUSE WREN. 



Troglodytes mdon, Vieill. 



PLATE LXXXIII. Male, Female, and Young. 



Although Louisiana is supplied with thousands of the Great Caro- 

 lina Wren, not a single individual of the present species is ever to be 

 found there. It appears, indeed, that the central districts of our Atlan- 

 tic coasts are their principal places of resort, probably because certain 

 portions of the country are intended to be occupied by different species of 

 the same genus. Thus, I think it highly probable that the Great Caro- 

 lina Wren has been intended for the Southern Districts, the House Wren 

 for the Middle States, Bewick's Long-tailed Wren for the regions of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and the Little Wren for our north-eastern territories, 

 along the St Lawrence, although it also breeds in the State of New 

 York, and even in that of Pennsylvania, where I have found it in the 

 Great Pine Swamp. I am induced to think that a fifth species of Wren 

 will yet be found within the limits of the United States. From this ar- 

 rangement I exclude the bird called the Marsh Wren, which more pro- 

 perly belongs to the genus Certhia. But, as. I have already said, I leave 

 all these matters to be discussed by the system-makers. 



The opinion expressed by a former writer, that the House Wren 

 occurs in the United States, is as incorrect as the assertion of a subse- 

 quent author, that the Florida Jay is met with on the Mississippi and 

 Ohio. During a residence of twenty years in the different States through 

 which these great streams pass, I never saw either the one or the other 

 of these birds. These are errors, however, which are to be attributed to 

 the circumstance that one of the writers alluded to never visited the 

 Southern or Western States, while the other merely passed once through 

 them. 



From whence the House Wren comes, or to what parts it retires 

 during winter, is more than I have been able to ascertain. Although it 

 is extremely abundant in the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, 

 and Maryland, from the middle of April until the beginning of October, I 

 have never been able to trace its motions, nor do I know of any naturalist 

 in our own country, or indeed in any other, who has been more fortunate. 



