8o LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS. 



The period of incubation is ten days. A little 

 longer time elapses, and the young which are 

 objects of the tenderest solicitude by their parents, 

 are Veady to vacate the nest. Their parents work 

 diligently to supply their wants. At first their food 

 consists chiefly of diptera and the larvae of the 

 snjaller lepidoptera ; other kinds are added as age 

 demands. But a single brood is raised in a season. 

 After the young are able to shift for themselves, 

 they, are still the objects of parental care. 



The House Wren is pre-eminently insectivorous, 

 and destroys an immense number of insects for a 

 bird of its size. During the early part of its sojourn, 

 its food consists of the immature forms of CEdipoda 

 sulphurea, CE. nebulosa, Ccdoptenus femur-rubrum, 

 among orthoptera; Harpalus pensylvanicusr, H. 

 compar, Platynus cupripennis, Bostrichus pitii, Chry- 

 somela ccBruleipennis, among coleopters ; Formica 

 sanguinea, and F.subterranea, among hymenoptera ; 

 Syrphus obscurus, Tabanus lineola, Stomoxys ccdci- 

 trans, Culex tceniorhynchus, and other dipterous 

 forms ; and Eufitchia ribearia, Anisopteryx vernata, 

 Clisiocampa Americana, and various species of lar- 

 val Nocttdds and Tortricids. 



The spng of this Wren is lively and pitched in a 

 sharp key. The following syllables express with 

 tolerable accuracy its literal representation : — twU- 

 twlt-iwU-fckulU-hwlt-tlUl-ke-ah-lwoo-iwe-kMh. Its 

 ordinary call note 'is a simple iwU. When pro- 

 voked its cry resembles ttvli-l-chee. The notes of 

 affection which the male addresses to his partner, 



