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GREAT CAROLINA WREN. 



-(-Troglodytes ludovicianus, Bonap. 

 PLATE CXVIL— Male and Female. 



The flight of this bird is performed by short flappings of the wings, the 

 concave under surfaces of which occasion a low rustling, as it moves to 

 the distance of a few steps only at each start. It is accompanied by violent 

 jerks of the tail and body, and is by no means graceful. In this manner the 

 Carolina Wren moves from one fence-rail to another, from log to log, up and 

 down among the low branches of bushes, piles of wood, and decayed roots of 

 prostrate trees, or between the stalks of canes. Its tail is almost constantly 

 erect, and before it starts to make the least flight or leap, it uses a quick 

 motion, which brings its body almost into contact with the object on which 

 it stands, and then springs from its legs. All this is accompanied with a 

 strong chirr-up, uttered as if the bird were in an angry mood, and repeated 

 at short intervals. 



The quickness of the motions of this active little bird is fully equal to 

 that of the mouse. Like the latter, it appears and is out of sight in a 

 moment, peeps into a crevice, passes rapidly through it, and shews itself at 

 a different place the next instant. When satiated with food, or fatigued 

 with these multiplied exertions, the little fellow stops, droops its tail, and 

 sings with great energy a short ditty something resembling the words come- 

 to-me, come-to-me, repeated several times in quick succession, so loud, and 

 yet so mellow, that it is always agreeable to listen to them. During spring, 

 these notes are heard from all parts of the plantations, the damp woods, the 

 swamps, the sides of creeks and rivers, as well as from the barns, the stables 

 and the piles of wood, within a few yards of the house. I frequently heard 

 these Wrens singing from the roof of an abandoned flat-boat, fastened to the 

 shore, a small distance below the city of New Orleans. When its song was 

 finished, the bird went on creeping from one board to another, thrust itself 

 through an auger-hole, entered through the boat's side at one place, and 

 peeped out at another, catching numerous spiders and other insects all the 

 while. It sometimes ascends to the higher branches of a tree of moderate 

 size, by climbing along a grape-vine, searching diligently amongst the leaves 

 and in the chinks of the bark, alighting sidewise against the trunk, and 

 moving like a true Creeper. It possesses the power of creeping and of 



