The Western Winter Wren 
It is quite the fashion, East, to make provision for Jenny Wren’s 
wants,—to set out bird boxes, or cans, or old teakettles with missing 
spouts, care being always taken that the entrance to the nesting hollow 
shall be too small to suit the English Sparrow. This is not done exten¬ 
sively in the West. Major Allan Brooks insists that the House Wren 
is a very bad neighbor. He says that in his neighborhood, on Okanogan 
Lake (B. C.), the little spite makes a business of destroying the eggs of 
Bluebirds and Tree Swallows by driving her thorn-like beak into them. 
This is not for love of the egg, apparently, but because she is jealous of 
too much company and claims all cavities for herself. However this may 
be, it is certain that Jenny Wren is an indefatigable gleaner of insects, 
and that her services in this field are altogether commendable. 
No. 136 
Western Winter Wren 
A. O. U. No. 722a. Nannus troglodytes pacificus (Baird). 
Description. — Adult: Above warm dark brown (deep raw umber), duller 
anteriorly, brighter on rump and tail, obscurely waved or barred with black on back, 
wings, and tail—barring more distinct on edges of four or five outer primaries, where 
alternating with buft’y; concealed white spots on rump scarce, or almost wanting; a 
pale brownish superciliary line; sides of head speckled brown and ochraceous; under¬ 
parts everywhere finely mottled, speckled, or barred,—on the throat and breast mingled 
brownish and cinnamon-buff or clay-color, below blackish and dull umber, the dusky 
element predominating over brown on flanks and crissum, where also admixed with 
white. Bill comparatively short, straight, blackish above, lighter below; feet light 
brown. Length 101.6 (4.00); wing 46 (1.81); tail 30 (1.18); bill 11.6 (.46); tarsus 18 
(-71)- 
Recognition Marks. —Pygmy size; dark brown above, lighter below; more or 
less speckled and barred all over; tail shorter than in preceding species. 
Nesting. — Nest: In holes or crannies of root, stump, or rockwall, usually near 
water; chiefly of moss or with some inclusion of twigs, and lined or not with feathers. 
Nest ideally a ball with tiny entrance on side near top, or else completely filling cavity. 
Eggs: 5 or 6, rarely 7; white, sparingly and sharply dotted with reddish brown. Av. 
size 15.2 x 12.2 (.60 x .48). Season: April-June; two broods. 
Range of Nannus troglodytes .—The Temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere; 
in North America, breeding, save in the mountains, chiefly north of the United States; 
wintering south to the Gulf Coast, and sparingly to southern California. 
Range of N. t. pacificus .—W estern North America. Breeds from Prince William 
Sound and western Alberta south to central California and northern Colorado; winters 
south from southern British Columbia to southern California and New Mexico. 
Distribution in California. —Common resident in the humid coastal strip as 
far south as Big Creek, Monterey County (Jenkins); also not common summer resident 
in northern high Sierras as far south as the Yosemite Valley (Torrey, Grinnell). In 
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