HOUSE WREN. 267 
the Mississippi, and sedulously avoiding the region generally 
inhabited by the Carolina Wren. It is a matter of surprise 
how this, and some other species, with wings so short and a 
flight so fluttering, are ever capable of arriving and returning 
from such distant countries. At any rate, come from where 
it may, it makes its appearance in the Middle States about the 
12th or r5th of April, and is seen in New England in the latter 
end of that month or by the beginning of May. It takes its 
departure for the South towards the close of September or 
early in October, and is not known to winter within the limits 
of the Union. 
Some time in the early part of May our little social visitor 
enters actively into the cares as well as pleasures which preside 
instinctively over the fiat of propagation. His nest, from pref- 
erence, near the house, is placed beneath the eaves, in some 
remote corner under a shed, out-house, barn, or in a hollow 
orchard tree ; also in the deserted cell of the Woodpecker, and 
when provided with the convenience, in a wooden box along 
with the Martins and Bluebirds. He will make his nest even 
in an old hat, nailed up, and perforated with a hole for en- 
trance, or the skull of an ox stuck upon a pole; and Audubon 
saw one deposited in the pocket of a broken-down carriage. 
So pertinacious is the House Wren in thus claiming the con- 
venience and protection of human society that, according to 
Wilson, an instance once occurred where a nest was made in 
the sleeve of a mower’s coat, which, in the month of June, was 
hung up accidentally for two or three days in a shed near a 
barn. 
The nest of this species, though less curious than that 
of some other kinds, is still constructed with considerable 
appearance of contrivance. The external approach is bar- 
ricaded with a strong outwork of sticks, interlaced with 
much labor and ingenuity. When the nest, therefore, is 
placed beneath the eaves, or in some other situation contig- 
uous to the roof of the building, the access to the inner fabric 
is so nearly closed by this formidable mass of twigs that a 
mere portion of the edge is alone left open for the female, 
