Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 



Six to eight minutely specified, flesh-colored eggs suffice to 

 keep the nervous, irritable parents in a state bordering on frenzy 

 whenever another bird comes near their habitation. With tail 

 erect and head alert, the father mounts on guard, singing a per- 

 fect ecstasy of love to his silent little mate, that sits upon the nest 

 if no danger threatens ; but both rush with passionate malice 

 upon the first intruder, for it must be admitted that Jenny wren 

 is a sad shrew. 



While the little family is being reared, or, indeed, at any 

 time, no one is wise enough to estimate the millions of tiny in- 

 sects from the garden that find their way into the tireless bills of 

 these wrens. 



It is often said that the house wren remains at the north all 

 the year, which, though not a fact, is easily accounted for by the 

 coming of the winter wrens just as the others migrate in the 

 autumn, and by their return to Canada when Jenny wren makes 

 up her feather-bed under the eaves in the spring. 



Carolina Wren 



(Tbryothorus ludovicianus) Wren family 



Called also: MOCKING WREN 



Length — 6 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English sparrow. 



Male and Female — Chestnut-brown above. A whitish streak, be- 

 ginning at base of bill, passes through the eye to the nape of 

 the neck. Throat whitish. Under parts light bufif-brown. 

 Wings and tail finely barred with dark. 



Range— UmttA States, from Gulf to northern Illinois and southern 



New England. 

 Migrations — A common resident except at northern boundary of 



range, where it is a summer visitor. 



This largest of the wrens appears to be the embodiment of 

 the entire family characteristics : it is exceedingly active, nervous, 

 and easily excited, quick-tempered, full of curiosity, peeping into 

 every hole and corner it passes, short of flight as it is of wing, 

 inseparable from its mate till parted by death, and a gushing 

 lyrical songster that only death itself can silence. It also has the 

 wren-like preference for a nest that is roofed over, but not too 

 near the homes of men. 



ii6 



