478 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



a dense thicket or a tangle of vines. The nesting materials consist of 

 twigs, straws, leaves and coarse rootlets. The eggs are usually 4 in number, 

 sometimes 3 or 5, grayish white or bluish white in ground color, thickly 

 and rather evenly speckled with minute spots of cinnamon or rufous brown. 

 They average i.i by .8 inches in dimensions. In the southern portions 

 of the State the first eggs are laid from the 15th to the 25th of May; one 

 or two weeks later in the northern counties. 



In the spring and summer the Thrasher's food consists principally of 

 worms and ground-inhabitating insects. Later in the season it partakes 

 freely of cherries, berries and other fruits. It is to be regretted that so 

 famous a songster and so striking a bird as the Thrasher will not become 

 accustomed to the presence of man and live familiarly about our gardens 

 and lawns like the Robin and the Catbird, but it seems to be scarcely 

 more accustomed to the presence of mankind than when the first settlers 

 found him on the edges of their clearings. 



Family TROQI^ODYTIDAE 



Wrens 

 Wing short and rounded; primaries 10, the first not noticeably reduced; 

 tail for the most part short and rounded, in some species, however, longer 

 than the wing; bill slender, nearly straight, as long as the head or, in some 

 species, considerably less; nostril oval, uncovered by feathers but with an 

 overhanging scale ; the rictus is not bristled ; tarsus scutellate ; the inner toe 

 joined by more than half its first joint to the outer toe. In size the wrens 

 are small birds, gray and mottled brown in coloration. In disposition 

 they are fearless or impertinent, spritely and rather quarrelsome, insectiv- 

 orous in diet, and migratory in habits. They are among our most prolific 

 songbirds, laying from 7 to 9 eggs or even more and frequently rearing 

 two broods in a season. In the family there are over a hundred species 

 on both continents, our little winter wren, which is so common in the North 

 Woods, being the representative of " Jenny Wren " of England, though our 

 House wren fills more nearly her place in the economy of our gardens and 



