334 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



in which it is placed, composed of "sticks, straw, coarse 

 feathers, fine chips, etc., matted together with spiders' webs, 

 and lined with tow and soft feathers of barnyard fowls."t 



Food habits. — Investigation of the food habits of one of the 

 western forms of the Bewick wren, by Prof. Beal, showed that 

 97 per cent of its food consisted of animal matter, chiefly in- 

 sects, and 3 per cent of vegetable matter. The animal food 

 included bugs (31 per cent), beetles (21 per cent), ants (7 per 

 cent), wasps (10 per cent), caterpillars and moths (12 per 

 cent), grasshoppers (4 per cent), flies (6 per cent), and 

 spiders (5 per cent).t The food of the eastern subspecies 

 probably does not differ greatly from that of the western, 

 A bird taken in Louisiana in winter had eaten 3 boll weevils. 



WESTERN HOUSE WREN : Troglodytes aedon pwrkmanii 



Audubon. 



State records. — Only two specimens of the western race of 

 the house wren (parkmami) and none of the eastern race 

 (aedon) are known from the State, so it is impossible to say 

 which is the prevailing form. On geographical grounds, 

 however, the western race would be expected to be found most 

 frequently. It occurs as a migrant and winter resident, but 

 does not breed in the State. 



Saunders records house wrens (under the name Troglodytes 

 aedon) "not common" at Woodbine, April 1 to 12, 1908,* but 

 no specimens were collected by him ; he informs me that single 

 birds were observed on April 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 12, and that on 

 April 6, 7, and 9 the birds were singing. At Orange Beach, 

 January 24, 1912, in scrubby bushes near the outer beach, 

 I collected a single specimen, and at Bon Secour, October 19 

 to 24, 1908, found the bird fairly common, but did not collect 

 any specimens. L, S. Golsan reports seeing house wrens at 

 Autaugaville, January 14, 1915, January 8, March 5, and 

 October 23, 1916. At Prattville, February 5, 1916, he took 

 a specimen of this race in an old field grown up to broom 

 sedge. 



tEidgway. B., Ornithology of Illinois, vol. 1, p. 98, 1889. 

 ±Beal, F. E. L., Biol. Surv. BuH. 30, pp. 57-GO, 1907. 

 *Saundera, A. A., The Auk, vol. 25, p. 423, 1908. 



