Bird Families 
Subfamily Troglodytine: WRENS 
Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown 
above, much lighter below. Usually carry their short tails erect. 
Wings are small, for short flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, 
easily displeased, quick to take alarm. Most of the species have 
scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing song, that 
seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. 
As a rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one 
species is thoroughly domesticated. All are insectivorous. 
Carolina Wren. 
House Wren. 
Winter Wren. 
Long-billed Marsh Wren. 
Short-billed Marsh Wren. 
Family Certhitde : CREEPERS 
Only one species of this Old World family is found in Amer- 
ica. It is a brown, much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around 
and around the trunks of trees in fall and winter, pecking at the 
larve in the bark with its long, sharp bill, and doing its work 
with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses its tail as a prop 
in climbing, like the woodpeckers. 
Brown Creeper. 
Family Paride ; NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE 
Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. 
The nuthatches (Sitting) are small, slate-colored birds, seen 
chiefly in winter walking up and down the barks of trees, and 
sometimes running along the under side of branches upside down, 
like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is derived 
from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark 
of trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight 
bills. 
White-breasted Nuthatch. 
Red-breasted Nuthatch. 
The titmice or chickadees (Paring ) are fluffy little gray birds, 
the one crested, the other with a black cap. They are also 
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