OF NEW ENGLAND. 73 
‘quite at home, even in the yards, gardens, and outhouses of 
the city,”®° and also speaks of their singing while in Pennsy]- 
vania. 
I have several times seen them in the forests of the White 
Mountains, both in valleys and on hill-sides,—in. those grand, 
dark, and cool forests, which have been left undisturbed by 
man for years, if not forever, where the ground is covered with 
fallen trees, with logs piled upon one another and covered 
with rich moss, and where the damp soil, unparched by the 
sun, in summer gives birth to innumerable ferns, of great 
variety and extraordinary beauty. In such spots, their natural 
haunts, the Wood Wrens seemed to be less shy than they com- 
monly are during their migrations (which is not the case with 
most birds), and I have there often watched them, creeping 
agilely about with their long legs and constantly ‘ ducking” 
their bodies in their peculiar manner, or singing from tbe top 
of some brush-heap or some pile of tangled limbs. r 
(d). When traveling they are silent, but they have an ex- 
quisite song, which I have often heard in their summer-homes. 
It is one which cannot fail to attract the attention of an obser- 
vant person, though it may lead to a long search for the musi- 
cian, before he is found. It is very lively and hurried, and the 
notes seem to tumble over one another in the energy with 
which they are poured out. They are full of power, though 
many are shrill, and are garnished with many a gay trill; in 
some passages reminding one of the Canary-bird’s song, though 
infinitely finer. Their tone and spirit are wonderful and alone 
render them quite characteristic. Dr. Brewer speaks of the 
* querulous note” of these birds, which I do not remember to 
have ever heard. 
One of the prettiest little scenes that I have ever seen in 
nature was partly enacted by a Winter Wren, who, in nimbly 
scrambling about a stone wall, nearly ran into a ‘*chipmonk,” 
basking in the sun on the top of it. The surprise and pertness 
20 Wilson wrote these words nearly seventy years ago, when Philadelphia was 
acity of about 30,000 inhabitants. 
