336 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



General habits. — The house wren, in its summer home in 

 the northern States, is a familiar and domestic bird, living 

 in boxes erected for its use or in hollow trees in the orchard 

 or dooryard. It is a most active and vigorous little sprite 

 and constantly bubbling over with song, examining the while 

 every nook and cranny in search of its food. During winter, 

 however, it is quiet and rather shy, frequenting low bushes 

 and weed patches in the fields. 



Food habits. — The food of the house wren consists almost 

 wholly of insects and their allies. Judd states, as the result 

 of the examination of 52 stomachs: 



Half of the food of the wren consists of grasshoppers and 

 beetles ; the other half is made up of approximately equal quan. 

 tities of cate^illars, bugs, and spiders. * * * 



Common grasshoppers, green grasshoppers, and crickets form 

 the most important part of the house wren's food, reaching a 

 maximum of about 60 per cent in August, and practically ex- 

 cluding many heretofore conspicuous elements. The catbird 

 and thrasher stop eating grasshoppers when fruit ripens, but 

 the wren keeps right on with the good work.f 



[HOUSE WREN: Troglodytes aedon aedon Vieillot. 



This race of the house wren breeds in northeastern United States 

 from Kentucky and Virginia northward. No specimens have as yet been 

 taken in the State, but quite probably it occurs rarely as a migrant or 

 winter visitant.] 



WINTER WREN: Nannus troglodytes hiemalis (Vieillot) .$ 



State records. — ^The winter wren occurs regularly but in 

 small numbers as a winter resident. McCormack records it 

 "not common" at Leighton, observed between October 16 and 

 January 18. Brown likewise found it uncommon at Coosada 

 in January and February, 1878, and Saunders saw it occa- 

 sionally at Woodbine, March 8 to 26, 1908. Holt saw two at 

 Jackson, February 21, 1912, and one at Barachias, January 9, 

 1913. Single birds were noted by Golsan at Autaugaville, 

 November 26, 1912^ and in February, 1913; by Graves on 

 Sand Mountain, April 13, 1914; and by the writer at Muscle 

 Shoals, November 4 and December 19, 1915. 



tJudd, S. D., Yearbook U. S. Dept. Asrr. for 1895, p. 417, 1898. 



tNannoB hiemalis hiemalis of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see The 

 Auk, vol. 37, p. 283, 1920. 



