326 THE BIRDS 
in use a dozen times a day—he doesn’t mind you. The 
nest is slightly arched over, composed of leaves, bark 
fiber, fine grasses, pine needles; lined with finer rootlets, 
bark fiber or very fine grasses or hair. Four to five eggs 
is a complete set; from April 15th to May Ist is an 
average date; June 15th for a second set. An exception 
was a batch of young just able to fly the first week in 
January; raised inside an old sawmill building, the 
entrance through a broken pane of glass. They remain 
the year round with us. Eggs white, spotted and 
blotched with reddish-brown and purplish, becoming more 
numerous toward the larger end. Size, .74x.58. I know 
of no more cheerful bird to have around one’s dwelling, 
for he is always singng, both winter and summer. There 
are few more inquisitive birds than this wren; mouse, 
rat and steel traps luring them to destruction. I have 
also found a dead one in a box rabbit trap or hare gum, 
while I have had them enter the open window of my 
house in the summer time. As thev are thus around the 
premises the entire year, the amount of spiders, wasps 
and flies gathered in the outbuildings, as well as numerous 
insects and their eggs and larvee, amounts to considerable. 
The borers in dead trees or racked-up cord wood, are 
choice morsels for these birds. One can not fail but to 
identify this noisy, energetic wren, seldom seen with his 
tail at any position but at right angles to his back, except 
when pouring forth his song, when it is pointing down- 
ward at a thirty degree angle. Some winters many are 
frozen out, but they seem to recover in numbers rapidly. 
They are evenly and abundantly distributed over our 
whole area. 
