( 469 ) 



WOOD WREN. 



Troglodytes Americana. 



PLATE CLXXIX. Vol. II. p. 452. 



I HAVE ascertained that this species spends the winter months in 

 South Carolina, where it keeps along the hedge-rows, about the roots 

 of bushes, and is quite silent. An egg of this bird, procured in the 

 State of Vermont, and presented to me by Dr T. M. Brewer of Boston, 

 differs from those of all our other Wrens : it measures six-eighths 

 of an inch in length, four and a half eighths in breadth ; its ground- 

 colour is dull yellowish-white, blotched all over with rather large mark- 

 ings of pale purplish-red, and zigzag streaks of deep blackish-brown, 

 more numerous around the middle than at either end. 



NUTTALL'S SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



Troglodytes brevirostris, Nuttall. 



PLATE CLXXV. Vol. IL p. 42?. 



I FouKD this small species very abundant in the Texas, where it 

 breeds in such situations as are usually selected by it elsewhere. 

 When within a few feet of them, I observed that whilst the males are 

 singing, the tail is allowed to hang loosely. I mention this because 

 the bird has been represented as elevating its tail while so engaged. 

 Dr Trudeau informs me that he found its nest in the Delaware 

 marshes, and saw both the male and the female near it, but could 

 not procure them, being at the time without a gun. The eggs were 

 four. 



