The Western House Wren 
have signed a truce, and tlie ancient misunderstanding is forgotten. It 
is at such a time that the heart of man softens. A wave of sympathy 
sweeps over him, sense of his own ill desert, and a great yearning for 
fellowship with all these tiny voyageurs upon the common stream of life. 
Out of the storm and chaos of human experience certain moments hold 
sacred to recollection,—moments in which a baby bird flashed us a look 
of confidence, or yielded, perchance, to the gentle pressure of a proffered 
finger. 
No. 135 
Western House Wren 
A. 0 . U. No. 721a. Troglodytes aedon parkmani Audubon. 
Synonyms.— Parkman's Wren. Pacific House Wren. 
Description. — Adult: Above grayish brown, duller and lighter (Saccardo’s 
umber) on foreparts; brighter (dresden brown) on rump, which has concealed downy, 
white spots; back and scapulars barred (rarely indistinctly) with dusky; wings on ex¬ 
posed webs and tail all over distinctly and finely dusky-barred; sides of head speckled 
grayish brown, without definite pattern; below light grayish brown (tilleul buff), in¬ 
distinctly speckled or banded with darker brownish on foreparts; heavily speckled and 
banded with dusky and whitish on flanks and crissum. Bill black above, lighter 
below; culmen slightly curved; feet brownish. Length 114.3-133.3 (4.50-5.25); wing 
52.8 (2.08); tail 44.6 (1.75); bill 13 (.51); tarsus 17.2 (.68). 
Recognition Marks. —Warbler size; brown above, much lighter brown below; 
everywhere more or less speckled and banded with dusky, brownish, or white. Larger, 
lighter, and with longer tail than Western Winter Wren. 
Nesting. — Nest: In holes or crannies, natural or artificial; basally of criss¬ 
crossed sticks, often absurdly large for bird; lined, meanly, with weed-stems, rootlets, 
or bark-flakes; or luxuriously, with anything soft,—grass, horsehair, wool, snake-skins, 
and especially feathers. Eggs: 6 or 8, sometimes 9; basally white, but usually so 
finely sprinkled with warm reddish brown as to appear pink on the less heavily marked 
portions; applied color tends to gather in handsome coronal wreaths. Av. size 16.5 x 
13.2 (.65 x .52). Season: Early and often—March or April to July or August. 
Range of Troglodytes aedon. —United States and southern Canada; south in 
winter to Mexico. 
Range of T. a. parkmani. —Western United States and the southern portion of 
the western Canadian provinces; east to Manitoba and southern Illinois; breeding 
south to southwestern Texas, southern Arizona, and the San Pedro Martir Mountains 
of Lower California; wintering from California and Texas south to Oaxaca. 
Distribution in California. —Common summer resident in Upper Sonoran 
and Transition zones, nearly throughout the State. Breeds sparingly in Lower Boreal 
zone, and ascends to limit of trees in late summer. Winters in the valleys of the San 
Diego district and in the valley of the Colorado, and casually northward. 
Authorities.—Gambel ( Troglodytes sylvestris), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., iii., 
1846, p. 113 (Calif.; name proposed as substitute for T. americanus Audubon, preoccu¬ 
pied); Cooper, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. i., 1876, p. 79 (nesting habits); Beal, U. S. 
674 
