THE HOUSE WREN. 



^^Troglodytes a&don.) 



The russet Wren glides in among the vines, 



And adds another strand unto its nest, 



Then, on the neighboring trellis, pours its song. 



The poor man's cottage is its favorite haunt; 



And he is poor indeed, who to his roof 



Can welcome not the yearly visitor. 



To cheer his door with music ! 



— Thomas Buchanan Read, 



'The New Pastoral. 



All birds are beautiful, and in one 

 way or another attract our attention and 

 interest us. There are, however, certain 

 of the smaller birds which seem to be 

 almost a part of our own lives and seem 

 to be members of our households. Such 

 a bird is the House Wren. It is one of 

 the best known of bird species in those 

 rural districts which are enlivened by its 

 presence. It will seek a home in villages 

 and cities, and does not hesitate to build 

 its nest in close proximity to our dwell- 

 ings. It was once my pleasure to ob- 

 serve a very striking illustration of the 

 attachment that man will acquire for 

 these familiar and cheerful little Wrens. 

 Sitting on the porch of a summer resort 

 hotel and noticing the Wrens visiting the 

 globe of a large illuminating lamp sus- 

 pended from the roof of the porch, I 

 asked the proprietor if the Wrens nested 

 there. This practical man of the world 

 said "Yes," and that he never lighted the 

 lamp as he could not bear to disturb' this 

 happy bird home. He did not realize 

 that in protecting these sprightly and act- 

 ive birds, because of his love for them, he 

 was also favoring himself for the House 

 Wrens are extremely destructive to insect 

 life, which constitutes nearly all, if not 

 the whole, of their food. They should 

 be protected and encouraged to breed 

 wherever they will, for they rear large 

 families and not infrequently two in a 

 season. The number of eggs laid varies 

 from six to nine. Mr. Robert Ridgway 

 in his "Ornithology of Illinois" quotes 

 the observations of Colonel S. T. Walker, 

 of Milton, Florida, who found that forty- 

 seven days elapsed between the begin- 



ning of the building of one nest and the 

 time when the young left it. In this in- 

 stance, the last ^g^ was laid the third 

 of May and the young left the nest on 

 the first day of June. 



The House Wrens are very active, and 

 their familiarity and fearlessness are re- 

 markable. One of their marked charac- 

 teristics is persistency, and pairs have 

 been known to rebuild a nest several 

 times in a site that suited their fancy, 

 though destroyed each time by human 

 hands. Mr. Silloway says : "A pair of 

 Wrens once laid claim to an empty shot 

 sack hanging under a porch of a farm 

 house, and refused to be dispossessed, 

 even after their work had been thrown 

 out twice by the farmer's wife. They 

 finally reared a brood in the third nest 

 made in this odd site." House Wrens be- 

 come attached to a nesting site once se- 

 lected and return to it year after year. 

 They are irritably disposed, not only 

 against individuals of their own kind, 

 but also toward other familiar birds, such 

 as the martins and bluebirds, which they 

 will sometimes assail and drive from 

 their homes and then take possession of 

 the site for their own habitation. This 

 habit has made the Wrens disliked by 

 many people, especially in the East, but 

 it should not be so, for the difficulty may 

 be overcome by providing bird-houses 

 enough for the three species. The 

 Wrens are fully as useful as are the mar- 

 tins and bluebirds, but in a dififerent field. 

 Mr. F. TI. King says: 'The size of 

 the bluebird, its method of obtaining 

 food, and its haunts, fit it best for work 

 in the open fields, where it should b'e 



74 



