( 452 ) 



THE WOOD WREN. 



Troglodytes amebtcana. 



PLATE CLXXIX. Male. 



Although I feel much pleasure in introducing this new species to 

 you, I regret that I am yet unable to speak with certainty of its summer 

 haunts, or of the extent of its migration in the United States. A family 

 of Wrens of this species were shot by my sons in a deep wood, eight or 

 ten miles from Eastport in Maine, in the summer of 18D2. The young 

 were following their parents through the dark and tangled recesses of their 

 favourite places of abode, busily engaged in search of their insect prey ; 

 but their nest was not seen. Some weeks afterwards three adult birds of 

 the same kind were shot near Dennisville in the same district ; and, on 

 shewing them to my young and inteUigent friend Thomas Lincoln, 

 Esq. he told me that they bred in hollow logs in the woods, and seldom 

 if ever approached the farms. He had seen the eggs, but, considering it 

 a common species there, had made no notes of their number or colour ; 

 nor had he attended to the form or materials of their nest. My drawing 

 was made at that place. 



Last winter, while at Charleston, I saw many of them : they had much 

 the same habits as in Maine, remaining in thick hedges along ditches, in 

 the woods, and also not far distant from plantations. I procured several 

 through the assistance of my friend John Bachman, which now form 

 part of my large collection of skins of American birds. The notes of 

 this species differ considerably from those of the House Wren, to which 

 it is nearly allied. I hope to be more famihar with the Wood Wren be- 

 fore my labours are completed, in which case I shall not fail to make you 

 acquainted with the result of my observations. 



The following table exhibits a view of the places of resort of our dif- 

 ferent Wrens, which are arranged according to their comparative fre- 

 quency. 



1. The Carolina Wren is extremely abundant in all the Southern 

 States, and gradually diminishes in number as you approach the Middle 

 Districts, none I believe being ever seen farther east than the State of New 



