136 CACTUS WREN. 
or matted together, and lined with feathers. Including the covered way or neck of 
the bottle leading to the nest proper, the structure is some ten or twelve inches long, 
and rather more than half as much in breadth.” 
Mr. Geo. B. Sennett found the Cactus.Wren a common bird of the lower Rio 
Grande Valley. “On my former trip,’ he says, “I did not find a single one of this 
species between the mouth of the river and Hidalgo. On this trip, about seven miles 
above Hidalgo, where the foot-hills begin, I found it not uncommon in certain localities. 
The limit of this bird’s habitat in the United States is, on the east, very strictly defined. 
At a point from the Gulf about one hundred miles by road or three hundred by river 
occurs its eastern limit. Here I came upon a ridge densely covered with cactuses of 
large size and a few scattering trees, where I found this bird in such numbers that at 
times a dozen could be seen at once; and in an hour or two three of us examined as 
many as fifty nests in different stages of completion, from those just begun to those 
containing young ready to fly. The nest is large and usually confined to the prickly- 
pear cactus, so that it is easily found.... It is eminently a bird of the cactus, still not 
altogether confined to it for nesting purposes. I have discovered its nests in junco, 
ebony, and mesquite trees. On May 21, I found two new but empty nests, some ten 
feet from the ground, one on each side of an ebony standing alone, and on the same 
day a fine nest.in the lower part of a large mistletoe, at least sixteen feet from the 
ground, in a mesquite tree. Several times I examined nests in the junco, which is oftener 
seen in bush-form than in proportions entitling it to the name of a tree. It consists of 
a mass of green thorns, without leaves, and so full of pitch that it readily burns when 
green and full of sap. The nests in cacti were never found lower than three feet from 
the ground, and usually four or more.... One nest contained five eggs, the others four 
or less. The eggs are unmistakable in color and shape. They appear rich buff without 
a magnifying-glass, so fine and closely laid are the spots upon the white ground. They 
are quite slender, and more pointed at one end than the other. In size they average 
.94.X%.65; the largest one is 1.00X.66, and the smallest .88x.63.” 
All observers agree in the statement that the Cactus Wren is a fine songster. Its 
notes are loud, sometimes rather harsh, clear, and ringing. 
The bird ranges from the lower Rio Grande Valley to the Pacific, and is common 
all along our southern border, but seems not to go far into our territory; south it 
ranges into northern Mexico. 
The Sr. Lucas Cactus Wren, Campylorhynchus affinis Xanvus, is confined to the 
southern portion of Lower California. 
NAMES: Cactus Wren, California Cactus Wren, Brown-headed Creeper Wren.—Cactuszaunkénig (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Picolaptes brunneicapillus Larr. (1835). CAMPYLORHYNCHUS BRUNNEI- 
CAPILLUS Gray (1847). 
DESCRIPTION: Above, grayish-brown, darkest on head which is unspotted. On back every feather streaked 
centrally with white. Beneath, whitish, with a rusty tinge on the belly. Throat, fore-part of breast, 
and under tail-coverts marked with numerous large rounded black spots. Chin and line over the eye, 
white. Iris yellowish. 
Length, 8 inches; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.55. 
