THE CAROLINA WREN NOT A MOCKER. 25 



cious and tuneful mimic, a favorite theme more constantly and regularly 

 repeated than the rest. . . . This sweet and melodious ditty, tsee-toot tsee-toot 

 tsee-toot, and sometimes tsee-toot tsee-toot seet, was usually uttered in a some- 

 what plaintive or tender strain, varied at each repetition with the most de- 

 lightful and delicate tones, of which no conception can be formed without 

 experience. ... In most cases it will be remarked that the phrases of our 

 songster are uttered in 3s ; 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 delivery. I shall never, I believe, forget the soothing satis- 

 faction and amusement I derived from this little constant and unwearied 

 minstrel, my sole vocal companion through 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 recol- 

 lected, he was still studious of concealment, keeping busily engaged near 

 the ground, or in low thickets, in quest of food ; and when he mounted a 

 log or brush-pile, which he had just examined, his color, so similar to the 

 fallen leaves and wintry livery of nature, often prevented me from gain- 

 ing a glimpse of this wonderful and interesting mimic." 



With all respect to Mr. Kuttall, I cannot but believe that the peculiar 

 circumstances under which he listened to the song of the Carolina wren 

 influenced his imagination too strongly. Undoubtedly, one may hear in 

 its loud and extremely varied nuptial song many notes that, singly, might 

 suggest the elements and the quality of the songs of various other birds ; 

 but it is my opinion that if these are ever voluntarily produced by the 

 bird outside of its own native song, as imitations, the instances are far less 

 rare than Mr. Nuttall's enthusiastic and sentimental description would 

 have us believe. The song of the wren is " Protean," truly, but, gener- 

 ally speaking, I do not believe it is mimicry in the proper sense of the 

 word. 



They were as active and inquisitive — my pair of Carolina wrens — as 

 any of their excitable race. A bridge which carried one railway over the 

 tracks of another formed their favorite perch, and I suspected that they 

 had their nest stuffed into some cranny among its braces, but I could not 

 find it, and it may have been behind one of the loose clapboards of a 

 tumbled-down shanty not far away. "While I was searching, the wrens 

 became greatly excited, flitting about close to me and scolding much like 

 angry kittens. " If shot at and missed," says Brewster, in the paper I 

 have referred to, " they seemed .at once to become very angry, hopping 

 nimbly from twig to twig with tail erect, and uttering, almost incessantly, 



