CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS OF WEENS 153 



conventional expression which probably covers all the inodiflca- 

 tions of the North American species at least, to the exclusion 

 of the birds of other families. 



About a hundred species and geographical races of Wrens 

 are usually recognized, and referred to some fifteen or twenty 

 genera. Nearly all of them are American, and the great 

 majority inhabit the warmer parts of this hemisphere. With 

 the exception of certain aberrant forms, by some placed in this 

 family, the group is only represented in the Old World by onei 

 or two species — the common Wood Wren of Europe, Anorthura 

 troglodytes, analogue of our Winter Wren, and a closely related 

 Japanese species, A. funiigatus, thought to be much the same 

 as the Alaskan Wren lately described by Professor Baird. The 

 habits and general economy of these birds vary to such a 

 degree that only a few leading traits can be conveniently 

 sketched. The Wrens habitually live near the ground, inhabit- 

 ing shrubbery rather than trees, the reeds of swamps or marshes, 

 the tangled brushwood of windfall country, patches of cactus, 

 piles of rocks, &c. Although not at all scansorial in the proper 

 sense, they have a good deal of the Creeper in their composi- 

 tion, and are incessantly rustling about in the intricate recesses 

 of their chosen resorts, gliding with short flights or leaping 

 impetuously. Such humility, and the evident desire for a 

 means of ready concealment, even though not always taken 

 advantage of, contrast curiously with some other traits the 

 Wrens exhibit in an exaggerated degree, and result in a singu- 

 lar compound. For the Wrens possess ahigh rate of irritability — 

 they are bold, self-asserting and aggressive, petulant to the 

 verge of fretfulness, with a certain pertness of demeanor, and 

 a singularly prying, inquisitive disposition. They are the irre- 

 pressil)le busy-bodies of feathered society, and not seldom make 

 trouble among some of the milder-mannered and better-behaved 

 members of the sylvan circle. They are noisy birds ; when 

 alarmed or displeased, they have a loud, harsh, chattering or 

 scolding note; but they are also fine songsters. Every one is 

 familiar with the bright hearty carol which the House Wren 

 trills so persistently in the spring, and the song of other species 

 is oft^n of wonderful timbre. The nidification differs in detail 

 with the several species ; but it may be said, in general terms, 

 that the Wrens build rude and bulky structures of coarse 

 materials, sometimes stowed away in holes, beneath rocks, &c., 

 in other cases hung in bushes or reeds. There is no constant 



