HOUSE WREN 



23 



object on the table, and now hopping across the 

 floor in pursuit of a spicier. 



The song of the House Wren sounds like "I 

 see a man up a trrreee," in clear trilled notes 

 like rippling water; the Bewick's is similar in 

 quality, but differs in the arrangement of the 

 notes. 



All three of the commoner Wrens make them- 

 selves very much at home about 

 dwellings and outbuildings ; one 

 even hears a Wren sing in an 

 empty room, sometimes, with 

 startling loudness and clear- 

 ness. They all expend a great 

 deal of fussy energy in the 

 business of building; the nest 

 is a large mass of grasses, dry 

 oak tassels, trash of all kinds, 

 feathers and hair and string. 

 It may be placed in shelves, 

 eaves, bird boxes, and even in tin cans. One I 

 knew in a paper bag, forgotten on the shelf of 

 an outhouse ; one in an old garden sprinkler ; and 

 one which I keep in a box to itself was built in 

 the rolled-up fold of a tent. It is quite arched 

 over, with the entrance at one side. One dainty, 

 freckled tail feather from a summer molt lies 

 inside it, — a souvenir of the proprietor — which 

 I would not think of removing. 



HOUSE WREN 

 Length 4% inches 



