CAROLINA WREN. 145 
it usually raised two broods in one of the nesting boxes. It also nested in barns, 
stables, and outhouses, but more commonly in natural cavities and Woodpeckers’ holes 
of the rich bottom woods. Also in dense bushes and thickets I occasionally found the 
nest. This is usually a very bulky structure, consisting of coarse plant-stems, grasses, 
bark-strips, and mosses, the interior being lined with feathers, hair, and fine grasses 
and rootlets. The nest is arched over, with the entrance on one side. The eggs, from 
four to seven in number, are white or pinkish-white, thickly speckled with reddish- 
brown, measuring .75%.58 inches. Although a true woodland bird, the Carolina Wren 
will settle anywhere, if protected, and if the gardens contain thickets of ornamental 
shrubs and climbers and suitable nesting boxes. In Florida, where the gardens often 
show a luxuriant growth of pampas grass and bamboos, it often builds in the clumps 
of these dense plants. It also frequently nests in hedges of Cherokee and Macartney 
roses and climbing tea and Banksia roses. 
Its song far surpasses that of any other Wren. The notes are so charmingly 
melodious, so powerful and voiced, so sweet and clear, so metallic, and yet so soft that 
we stop to listen, wherever they are uttered. The beautiful surroundings, as mentioned 
in the introduction, conspire to heighten the effect of this enchanting song. In the 
larger gardens, the song may be heard occasionally throughout the winter, particularly 
on those bright and balmy winter days, so common in the South Atlantic and Gulf 
region. When the first buds of the camellias or the “‘japonicas,’’ as they are often called, 
unfold their waxy petals, the song may be heard from all sides, being at'its best when 
the azaleas, magnolias, and tea roses bloom. As the bird is an untiring songster, it 
may be heard from early morn till the twilight of the evening. Even at night, when 
the Mockingbird and Cardinal vie with each other in pouring forth enchanting nocturnal 
songs, I have frequently listened to the notes of this bird. Sometimes it mimics other 
birds, though not nearly to the extent assumed by some writers. At times the lively 
notes of the Tufted Titmouse, the simple refrain of the Chewink and others intermingle, 
‘but they are so much altered as to be hardly recognized. Because of its power of 
mimicking, it is often called the Mocking Wren. Many times, and in many places, I 
have heard the song of the Carolina Wren in Texas, at Vermillionville and New Orleans, 
La., at Pensacola, and in the rich woods near the Chattahoochee, the Suwanee, the St. 
Johns, and in the dense hummock woods on the borders of Lake Apopka in Florida, but I 
have never heard it intermingle harsh notes like that of the Grackles or Jays. Nor have 
I ever heard two Carolina Wrens sing exactly alike, though the characteristic Wren- 
melody is never wholly lost. An observer accustomed to the songs of birds, at once 
recognizes the lay of this Wren. As the notes are very loud, clear, and whistling, they can 
be heard at a great distance. When singing, the bird mounts the top of a bush or post, 
or perches on the roof of a building caroling with raised head and hanging tail its finest 
strains. The late Mr. C. W. Beckham says that at Bayou Sara, La., the Carolina Wren 
probably exceeds in numbers any other summer resident. It finds itself at home 
everywhere, nesting indifferently in the stable, under the piazza, or in an old stump 
down in the swamp. But wherever it may be, it makes no secret of its whereabouts, 
for hill and dale, and swamp and garden, all resound “from dawn to twilight with 
the full-toned, tireless songs of this orphean prodigy. I say songs, for the Carolina 
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