BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH . BROWN, AND 

 BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS 



House Wren 



(Troglodytes aedonj Wren family 



Length — ^4.5 to 5 inches. Actually about one-fourth smaller than 

 the English sparrow ; apparently only half as large because 

 of its erect tail. 



Male and Female — Upper parts cinnamon-brown. Deepest shade 

 on head and neck; lightest above tail, which is more rufous. 

 Back has obscure, dusky bars ; wings and tail are finely 

 barred. Underneath whitish, with grayish-brown wash and 

 faint bands most prominent on sides. 



Range — North America, from Manitoba to the Gulf Most com- 

 mon in the United States, from the Mississippi eastward. 

 Winters south of the Carolinas. 



Migrations — April. October. Common summer resident. 



Early some morning in April there will go off under your 

 window that most delightful of all alarm-clocks — the tiny, friendly 

 house wren, just returned from a long visit south. Like some 

 little mountain spring that, having been imprisoned by winter 

 ice, now bubbles up in the spring sunshine, and goes rippling 

 along over the pebbles, tumbling over itself in merry cascades, 

 so this little wren's song bubbles, ripples, cascades in a minia- 

 ture torrent of ecstasy. 



Year after year these birds return to the same nesting places: 

 a box set up against the house, a crevice in the barn, a niche 

 under the eaves; but once home, always home to them. The 

 nest is kept scrupulously clean ; the house-cleaning, like the 

 house-building and renovating, being accompanied by the cheer- 

 iest of songs, that makes the bird fairly tremble by its intensity. 

 But however angelic the voice of the house wren, its temper can 

 put to flight even the English sparrow. Need description go 

 further ? 



