154 WINTER WREN. 
such resorts to be found where it lives. Nevertheless, it shows the same readiness to do 
so whenever opportunity offers, and is rapidly growing semi-domesticated in settled 
parts of the West. The nests of both birds are remarkable for the endless variety of 
the materials of which they are composed, the dimensions which they sometimes attain, 
“and the diversity of the sites selected for them. The birds seem to be afflicted with an 
insanabile construendi cacoéthes (to borrow a simile from Juvenal), which impels them 
to keep on building after they have built enough for any practicable purpose. Their 
notion seems to be, that whatever place they seleét, be it large or small, must be 
completely filled with a lot of rubbish before they can feel comfortable about it. When 
they nest in a knot-hole, or any cavity of inconsiderable dimensions, the structtire is a 
mass of sticks and other thrash of reasonable bulk; but the case is otherwise when they 
get behind a loose weather-board, for instance where there is room enough for a dozen 
nests; then they never know when to stop. I witnessed a curious illustration of their 
‘insane’ propensities in one case where a pair found their way through a knot-hole into 
one of those small sheds which stand in the back-yard, with a well-worn path leading 
to the house, showing its daily use. Having entered through a nice little hole, into a 
dark place, the birds evidently supposed it was allright inside, and began to build in a 
corner under the roof, where the joists come together. Though annoyed by frequent 
interruption, the indefatigable little creatures, with almost painful diligence, lugged in 
their sticks till they had made a pile that would fill a bushel, and I cannot say they 
would not have filled the whole shed had they not been compelled to desist; for they 
were voted a nuisance, and the hole was stopped up. The size of the sticks they carried 
in, was enormous in comparison with their own stature; it seemed as if they could not 
lift them, much less drag the crooked pieces through such a narrow orifice.’”’ (Dr. Elliott 
Coues.) 
NAMES: House Wren, Wood Wren.— Hauszaunkénig (German).—Troglodyte aédon (Vieill.), Roitelet. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: TROGLODYTES AEDON Viee. (1807). Motacilla domestica Bartr. (1791). Hyle 
mathrous aédon Cab. (1860). Sylvia domestica Wils. (1808). Troglodytes domesticus Coues (1875). 
Troglodytes fulvus Nutt. (1832). Troglodytes americanus Aud. (1834). Hylemathrous americanus 
Cab. (1860). 
DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. Above, brown, darker on the head, brighter on the rump; nearly everywhere 
waved dusky, strongest on the wings and tail. Beneath, pale fulvous-white, tinged with light brown- 
ish across the breast. Under tail-coverts, whitish. An obscure whitish line over the eye. ‘ 
Length, 4.90 inches; wings, 2.08; tail, 2.00 inches. 
WINTER WREN. 
Troglodytes hiemalis V1EILLoT. 
©". WINTER WREN differs but little from the common Wren of Europe. Although 
reported as a breeding bird from several localities in Illinois and Iowa, its real 
home begins with the mixed woods of central and northern Wisconsin and Michigan. 
It is a species of the Canadian Fauna, which fact prescribes the southern limits of the 
