672 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
black, the outer ones with white tips and white spots on inner webs; under tail-coverts 
strongly burred with black and white; a white line over the eye from nostril to nape; 
under parts grayish-white; flanks brownish. Sexes alike; seasonal changes slight. 
Length 5 to 5.50 inches; wing 2 to 2.25; tail 2.10 to 2.40 
305. House Wren. Troglodytes aedon aedon Vveill. (721) 
Synonyms: Brown Wren, Common Wren, Wood Wren, Stump Wren, Short-tailed 
House Wren, Jenny Wren.—Troglodytes wdon, Vieill., 1807.—Sylvia domestica, Wils., 
1808.—Troglodytes americanus, Aud., 1834.—Troglodytes aédon, Ridgw., 1887, and most 
subsequent writers 
Figure 146. 
Known readily by the small size, jerky movements, and tail carried 
erect over the back, in connection with the brown color of the upper parts, 
brighter rusty on rump and tail, and the soiled whitish under parts; the 
wings, tail and sides usually showing fine blackish bars. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States and southern Ontario, west to 
Indiana and Louisiana. Resident from the middle districts southward. 
The House Wren is an abundant summer resident over the greater part 
of Michigan, but is somewhat local in its distribution, being entirely un- 
known in small areas 
here and there, but 
abundant in other dis- 
tricts but a few miles 
away. We have seen it 
personally, or had it 
reported by — reliable 
observers, from all parts 
of the state, including 
the entire south shore 
of Lake Superior. Ordi- 
narily it is found in close 
association with man, at 
least during the nesting 
season, but it is one of 
the characteristic birds 
of the waste lands of the 
north, where the timber 
has been cut off and fire 
has swept over the face 
of the land, leaving 
o Fig. 146. House Wren. Courtesy of Biological Survey, U.S. 
numerous dead ti ees anc Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1895. 
charred stumps in which 
the Wren delights to nest. In such places it is often abundant at a distance 
of many miles from any human habitation and its sprightly and incessant 
song is one of the cheering features amid the desolate surroundings. 
It arrives in the southern part of the state from the middle of April to 
the first of May, the earliest date given by Mr. Trombley at Petersburg, 
Monroe county, being April 15, 1894, and the earliest date given by Mr. 
Wood at Ann Arbor, March 13, 1887. This, however, is an unusually 
early date, and Mr. Wood gives the average as the second week in April, 
which is much earlier than the records for the rest of the state would seem 
to warrant. In Ingham county the bird rarely appears before the 20th 
