GkEAT CAROLINA WHEN. 137 
GREAT CAROLINA WREN.—CERTHIA CAROLINIANA.— 
Fie. 51. 
Le Roitelet de la Louisiana, Pi. enl. 730, fig. 1.— Lath. Syn. vii. p. 507, var. B. — 
Le Troglodytes de la Louisiana, Buff. Ois. v. p. 361.— Motacilla Caroliniana, 
(regulus magnus,) Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, No, 7248. 
TROGLODYTES LUDOVICIANUS. — Bonaparte. 
Troglodytes Ludovicianus, Bonap. Synop. p. 93.—The Great Carolina Wren, 
Aud. pl. 78, male and female. Orn. Biog. i. p. 399. 
Turs is another of those equivocal species that so often occur to 
puzzle the naturalist. The general appearance of this bird is such, that 
the most illiterate would at first sight call ita Wren; but the Common 
Wren of Europe, and the Winter Wren of the United States, are both 
Warblers, judging them according to the simple principle of Linneus. 
The present species, however, and the preceding, (the Marsh Wren, ) 
though possessing great family likeness to those above mentioned, are 
decisively Creepers, if the bill, the tongue, nostrils, and claws, are to 
be the criteria by which we are to class them. 
The color of the plumage of birds is but an uncertain and inconstant 
guide; and though in some cases it serves to furnish a trivial or specific 
appellation, yet can never lead us to the generic one. I have, there- 
fore, notwithstanding the general appearance of these birds, and the 
practice of former ornithologists, removed them to the genus Certhia, 
from that of Motacilla, where they have hitherto been placed.* 
This bird is frequently seen, early in May, along the shores of the 
Delaware, and other streams that fall into it on both sides, thirty or 
forty miles below Philadelphia; but is rather rare in Pennsylvania. 
This circumstance is a little extraordinary; since, from its size and 
stout make, it would seem more capable of braving the rigors of a 
northern climate than any of the others. It can, however, scarcely be 
called migratory. In the depth of winter I found it numerous in Vir- 
ginia, along the shores and banks of the James River, and its tributary 
streams, and thence as far south as Savannah. I also observed it on 
* Of this bird, and some others, Vieillot formed his genus Tryothorus, containing 
the larger Wrens, with long, and somewhat curved bills, and possessing, if possi- 
ble, more of the habits of the Creepers. This has, with almost universal consent, 
been laid aside even as a sub-genus, and they are all included in Troglodytes. 
Read the descriptions of our author, or of Audubon, and the habits of the Wren 
will be at once perceived. ‘Its tail,” says the latter ornithologist, “ is almost ce ..- 
stantly erect ; and before it starts to make the least flight, it uses a quick mo‘.on, 
which brings its body almost in contact with the object on which it stands. The 
quickness of the motions of this little bird is fully equal to that of a mouse . it ap- 
pears, and is out of sight in a moment; peeps into a crevice, passes rapidly through 
it, and shows itself at a different place the next instant. These Wrens often sing 
from the roof of an abandoned flat-boat. When the song is finished, they creep 
from one board to another, thrust themselves through an auger hole, entering the 
boat’s side at one place, and peeping out at another.” In them we have exactly 
‘portrayed the manners of our British Wren, when engaged about a heap of rubbish, 
old stones, or ens a farm yard. — Ep. 
12* 
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