90 HCUSE WREN. 
fur the fiery impetuosity of his little antagonist. With those of his 
own species who settle and build near him, he has frequent squabbles; 
and when their respeciive females are sitting, each strains his whole 
powers of song to excel the other. When the young are hatched, the 
hurry and press of business leave no time for, disputing, so true it is 
that idleness is the mother of mischief. These birds are not confined 
to the country; they are to be heard on the tops of the houses in the 
most central parts of our cities, singing with great energy. Scarce 
a house or cottage in the country is without at least a pair of them, 
and sometimes two ; but unless where there isa large garden, orchard, 
and numerous outhouses, it is not often the case that more than one 
pair reside near the same spot, owing to their party disputes and 
jealousies. It has been said by a friend to this little bird, that “the 
esculent vegetables of a whole garden may, perhaps, be preserved 
from the depredations of different species of insects, by ten or fifteen 
pair of these small birds;” * and probably they might, were the com- 
bination practicable; but such a congregation of Wrens about one 
garden is a phenomenon not to be expected but from a total change 
in the very nature and disposition of the species. 
Having seen no accurate description of this bird in any European 
publication, I have confined my references to Mr. Bartram and Mr. 
Peale; but though Europeans are not ignorant of the existence of 
this bird, they have considered it, as usual, merely as a slight variation 
from the original stock, (JM. troglodytes,) their own Wren; in which 
they are, as usual, mistaken ; the length and bent form of the bill, its 
notes, migratory habits, long tail, and red eggs, are sufficient specific 
differences. 
The House Wren inhabits ‘the whole of the United States, in all 
of which it is migratory. It leaves Pennsylvania in September; I 
have sometimes, though rarely, seen it in the beginning of October. 
It is four inches and a half long, and five and three quarters in extent, 
the whole upper parts of a deep brown, transversely crossed with 
black, except the head and neck, which is plain; throat, breast, and 
cheeks, light clay color; belly and vent, mottled with black, brown, 
and white; tail, long, cuneiform, crossed with black; legs and feet, 
light clay color, bill, black, long, slightly curved, sharp pointed, and 
resembling that of the genus Certhia, considerably; the whole plu- 
mage below the surface is bluish ash; that on the rump having large, 
round spots of white, not perceivable unless separated with the hand 
The female differs very little in plumage from the male. 
* Barton’s Fragments, parti. 3. 22. 
