CAROLINA WREN. 393 



Mr. Saunders that a specimen of the Carolina Wren had been taken 

 in Ontario. 



This individual was shot in the town of Mount Forest in Feb- 

 ruary, 1891, by Montague Smith, who had observed it singing daily 

 near a favorite haunt for a month before it was captured. It is a 

 true Wren, having the habit of erecting its tail and appearing and 

 disappearing among a pile of logs, or similar cover, as nimbly as a rat 

 or weasel. It has all the nervous irritability of the other members 

 of the family, one evidence of this being the fact of its keeping up its 

 song during the winter, when most of the other birds are silent. It 

 is a special favorite with the colored people in the South, who like to 

 hear its notes in the woods in winter, and have given it the name of 

 "Jubilee Bird." The Carolina Wren is a very prolific species, the 

 female turning over to the male the care of the first brood before 

 they are able to shift for themselves, while she proceeds to deposit a 

 second set of eggs in another nest, which the male has prepared for 

 their reception. Family number two is turned over to the male in due 

 course, and in this way three broods are raised during the season in a 

 very short time. It is the largest of the Wrens, and not likely to be 

 mistaken for any other species. Its voice is strong, sharp and clear, 

 and can be heard at as great a distance as those of the Brown 

 Thrasher and Catbird. It has some of the habits of the Creeper, 

 being occasionally seen going spirally up the trunk of a perpendiculai- 

 tree, examining the crevices of the bark for insects. It also resem- 

 bles the House Wren in its breeding habits, the nest being often 

 built in an outhouse or under the verandah of a dwelling, but it 

 seems most at home in the woods, where its favorite haunts are 

 among piles of logs or heaps of brush, on the banks of streams or 

 ravines, where it can inspect the surroundings one instant and be 

 entirely concealed the next. Individuals are observed to differ some- 

 what in color, some being rusty brown, while others are compara- 

 tively gray. 



