TROGLODYTES AEDON (Vieill.). 



298. House Wren. (721) 



Above, brown, brighter behind; below, rusty -brown or grayish-brown, or 

 even grayish-white, everywhere waved with a darker shade, very plainly on 

 wings, tail, flanks and under tail coverts ; breast, apt to be darker than either 

 throat or belly. Length, 4J ; wings and tail, about 2. 



Hab. — Eastern United States and Southern Canada, west to Indiana and 

 Louisiana. 



Nest, in a hole or crevice, the neighborhood of a dwelling preferred, 

 composed of twigs, leaves, hair, feathers, etc. 



Eggs, seven to nine, white, very thickly spotted with reddish-brown. 



In the thinly settled parts of the country where this Wren has 

 been observed, it breeds in any convenient hole or crevice in a tree 

 or fence-post by the roadside, and on account of this habit, and an 

 imaginary superiority in point of size, those found in such places 

 were described as a separate species, and na,nied by Audubon the 

 Wood Wren. The individuals procui'ed in town and country being 

 subsequently found to be identical, this name has for some years been 

 allowed to drop. The birds, having taken kindly to the society of 

 man, are nearlj^ all furnished with houses, or, finding other suitable 

 nesting places near our dwellings, are living almost domesticated. 

 They are sprightly, active little birds, and do good service by the 

 destruction of insects, which they find on the trees in the orchard, or 

 about the outhouses. Being possessed of all the scolding propensities 

 peculiar to the family, they resent with great spirit any intrusion in 



