Bird Families 



Subfamily Troglodytince : WRENS 



Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown 

 above, much lighter below. Usually carry their short tails erect. 

 Wings are small, for short flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, 

 easily displeased, quick to take alarm. Most of the species have 

 scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing song, that 

 seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. 

 As a rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one 

 species is thoroughly domesticated. All are insectivorous. 



Carolina Wren. 



House Wren. 



Winter Wren. 



Long-billed Marsh Wren. 



Short-billed Marsh Wren. 



Family Certhiidce: CREEPERS 



Only one species of this Old World family is found in Amer- 

 ica. It is a brown, much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around 

 and around the trunks of trees in fall and winter, pecking at the 

 larvae in the bark with its long, sharp bill, and doing its work 

 with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses its tail as a prop 

 in cHmbing, like the woodpeckers. 



Brown Creeper. 



Family Paridce : NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE 



Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. 



The nuthatches (Sittince) are small, slate-colored birds, seen 

 chiefly in winter walking up and down the barks of trees, and 

 sometimes running along the under side of branches upside down, 

 like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is derived 

 from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark 

 of trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight 

 bills. 



White-breasted Nuthatch. 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch. 



The titmice or chickadees (Parince) are fluffy little gray birds, 

 the one crested, the other with a black cap. They are also 



13 



