cassell's book of birds. 



THE CAROLINA WREN. 



The Carolina Wren ( Thryothorus Ludovicianus), according to the Prince von Wied, is five 

 inches long and seven broad ; the wing measures two inches and one-sixth, and the tail an inch and 

 three-quarters. The plumage of the upper portion of the body is reddish brown, marked with 

 undulating lines of a deeper hue ; the chin and throat are white, the rest of the lower parts yellowish 

 red, with, black markings on the sides ; a stripe over the eyes is white. The quills are blackish brown 

 on the inner, and striped on the outer web. The feathers of the wing-covers are tipped with white. 

 The eye is greyish brown ; the upper mandible light grey, the lower one lead-colour, tipped with 

 pale brown. This species is the largest and most numerous of all the many species of Wrens 

 inhabiting North America ; it is met with alike in mountain tracts, low-lying regions, dense forests, or 

 even districts near the abodes of man. 



" The quickness of the motions of this little bird," says Audubon, " is fully equal to that of the 

 mouse. Like the latter, it appears and is out of sight in a moment ; peeps into a crevice, passes 

 rapidly through it, and shows itself at a different place in the next instant. When satiated with food, 

 or fatigued with these multiplied exertions, the little fellow stops, droops its tail, and sings with great 

 energy a short ditty, something resembling the words ' Come to me, Come to me! repeated several 

 times in quick succession, so loud, and yet so mellow, that it is always agreeable to listen to its music. 

 During spring these notes are heard from all parts of the plantations, the damp woods, the swamps, 

 the sides of creeks and rivers, as well as from the barns, the stables, and the piles of wood within 

 a few yards of the house. I frequently heard one of these Wrens singing from the roof of an 

 abandoned flat boat fastened to the shore, a short distance below the city of New Orleans. When its 

 song was finished, the bird went on creeping from one board to another, thrust itself through an 

 auger-hole, entered the boat's side at one place and peeped out at another, catching numerous spiders 

 and other insects all the while. It sometimes ascends to the higher branches of a tree of moderate 

 size, by climbing along a grape-vine, searching diligently among the leaves and in the chinks of the 

 bark, alighting sideways against the trunk, and conducting itself like a true Creeper." 



The vocal capabilities of the Carolina Wren would appear to be respectable, and it can imitate 

 with tolerable accuracy the notes of other birds. " Amidst its imitations and variations," says 

 Nuttall, " which seem almost endless, and lead the stranger to imagine himself, even in the depth of 

 winter, surrounded by all the quaint choristers of the summer, there is still with our capricious and tuneful 

 mimic a favourite theme, more constantly and regularly repeated than the rest. This was also the 

 first sound that I heard from him, delivered with great spirit, though in the dreary month of January. 

 This sweet and melodious ditty — tsee-toot, tsee-toot, tsee-toot, and sometimes tsee-toot, tsec-toot, seet, was 

 usually uttered in a somewhat plaintive or tender strain, varied at each repetition with the most 

 delightful and delicate tones, of which no conception can be formed without experience. That this 

 song has a sentimental air may be conceived from its interpretation by the youths of the country, who 

 pretend to hear it say ' Sweet-heart, sweet-heart, sweet/' Nor is the illusion more than the natural truth, 

 for usually this affectionate ditty is answered by its mate, sometimes in the same note, at others in a 

 different call. In most cases it will be remarked that the phrases of our songster are uttered in thiees ; 

 by this means it will generally be practicable to distinguish its performance from that of other birds, 

 and particularly from the Cardinal Grosbeak, whose expressions it often closely imitates, both in power 

 and deliver)'. I shall never, I believe, forget the soothing satisfaction and amusement I derived from 

 this little constant and unwearied minstrel, my sole vocal companion throughout many weary miles 

 of a vast, desolate, and otherwise cheerless wilderness. Yet, with all his readiness to amuse by 

 his Protean song — the epitome of all he had ever heard or recollected — he was still studious of 



