68 LAND-BIRDS. 



peculiar cry of cree-cree-cree-cree, which is much less often 

 heard than the others. Their indescribable song is a very 

 pleasant one, being somewhat like the far finer music of the 

 Winter Wren, and is varied, some of the notes being loud and 

 sweet, while others are much feebler and less full in tone.; It 

 is repeated both in spring and summer, but never, I think, 

 before March. 



The Creepers are harmless birds, and, as well as their allies, 

 the Titmice and Nuthatches, should be considered extremely 

 useful, since they help largely to preserve our trees and to pro- 

 tect forest growth. While men continue unwisely to destroy 

 large woods in this State, thus exposing others and leaving no 

 provision for the future, these birds wiU be more and more 

 needed to remove those prominent causes of vegetable decay, 

 injurious insects. Therefore they should be preserved. 



§ 7. The TROGLODYTID.<3E, or Wrens, form a distinct 

 group, though quite closely allied to several families. They 

 are insectivorous, and pass their time near the ground. Though 

 not climbers, they are eminently creepers. They are migratory, 

 but not gregarious. They are for the most part (possibly in 

 all cases) musical. They lay several or many eggs in one set ; 

 these are small, white, reddish, or brown, and generally finely 

 marked. The Troglodytes inhabit shrubbery or woodland, and 

 build their nest in some cavity, such as the hole of a tree ; 

 but the Cistothori frequent marshes or meadows, and build a 

 globular nest, which is suspended among the reeds, or in the 

 grass. The Troglodytidoe are characterized as follows : colors 

 plain ; general size less than six inches (though in one North 

 American species eight) ; bill rather long and slender, unbris- 

 tled and unnotched ; nostrils exposed, but overhung by a scale ; 

 tarsi scuteUate ; toes partly united ; primaries ten, but the first 

 very short; tail-feathers not acuminate (fig. 3). 



The Motacillidce (§ 8) are in New England represented 

 by one species only (belonging to the subfamily Anthirm). 

 They possess the following features : average length, about 

 six inches (?) ; bill slender, somewhat notched, scarcely bris- 

 tled, but above " slightly concave at base " ; nostrils exposed ; 



