114 ROCK WREN. 



which border the bottom of Hare's Fork of the Siskadee (or Colorado 

 of the West), I heard, and at length saw this curious Mountain Wren. Its 

 actions are those of the Carolina species, Troglodytes ludovicianus. The 

 old female (as I supposed) sat upon a ledge of rock at the head of a high 

 ravine in the bluff, cocking her tail, and balancing herself, at the same time 

 uttering a tshurr, tshurr, and t6 aigh, with a strong guttural accent, and 

 now and then, when approached, like the common Short-billed Marsh Wren, 

 Troglodytes brevirostris, a quick guttural tshe de de. It has also a shrill 

 call at times, as it perches on a stone on the summit of some hill, again 

 similar to the note of the Carolina Wren, occasionally interrupted by a 

 tshurr. Among these arid and bare hills of the central table-land they 

 were quite common. The old ones were feeding and watching a brood of 

 four or five young, which, though fully grown, were protected and cherished 

 with the querulous assiduity so characteristic of the other Wrens. They 

 breed under the rocky ledges where we so constantly observed them, under 

 which they skulk at once when surprised, and pertinaciously hide in 

 security, like so many rats. Indeed so suddenly do they disappear among 

 the rocks, and remain so silent in their retreat, that it is scarcely possible to 

 believe them beneath your feet till after a lapse of a few minutes you begin 

 to hear a low cautious chirp, and the next moment, at the head of the ravine, 

 the old female probably again appears, scolding and jerking in the most 

 angry attitudes she is capable of assuming. In the same rocky retreats 

 they are commonly accompanied by a kind of small striped Ground Squirrel, 

 like that of the eastern coast in many respects, but much smaller. These 

 little animals, which are numerous, the White-chinned Buzzard, Buleo 

 vulgaris of Richardson and Swainson, and the Raven frequently hover 

 over and pounce upon. We met with this species as far west as the lowest 

 falls of the Columbia, or within a few miles of Fort Van Couver, but among 

 rocks and cliffs as usual." 



Troglodytes obsoleta, Say, Long's Exped. 



Troglodytes obsoleta, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 6. 



Rocky Mountain Wren, Troglodytes obsoleta, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 435. 



Rock Wren, Troglodytes obsoletus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 443. 



Adult Female. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, slender, slightly arched, compressed 

 toward the end; upper mandible with the sides convex towards the end, flat 

 and declinate at the base, the edges sharp and overlapping, with a very slight 

 notch close to the declinate tip; lower mandible with the angle long and 

 narrow, the dorsal line very slightly concave, the sides sloping outwards and 



