WINTER WREN. i^t 



is the case with some others, it will account for his early and 

 frequent residence along the Atlantic coast during the severest 

 winters ; though I rather suspect that he proceeds considerahly 

 to the northward ; as the snow bird (F. Hudsonia), which 

 arrives about the same time with the winter wren, does not 

 even breed at Hudson's Bay, but passes that settlement in 

 June, on his way to the northward ; how much farther is 

 unknown. 



The length of the winter wren is three inches and a half; 

 breadth, five inches ; the upper parts are of a general dark 

 brown, crossed with transverse touches of black, except the 

 upper parts of the head and neck, which are plain ; the black 

 spots on the back terminate in minute points of dull white ; 

 the first row of wing-coverts is also marked with specks of 

 white at the extremities of the black, and tipt minutely with 

 black ; the next row is tipt with points of white ; the primaries 

 are crossed with alternate rows of black and cream colour ; 

 inner vanes of all the quills, dusky, except the three secondaries 

 next the body ; tips of the wings, dusky ; throat, line over the 

 eye, sides of the neck, ear-feathers and breast, dirty white, 

 with minute transverse touches of a drab or clay colour ; sides 

 under the wings, speckled with dark brown, black, and dirty 

 white ; belly and vent, thickly mottled with sooty black, deep 

 brown, and pure white, in transverse touches ; tail, very short, 

 consisting of twelve feathers, the exterior one on each side a 

 quarter of an inch shorter, the rest lengthening gradually to 

 the middle ones ; legs and feet, a light clay colour, and pretty 

 stout ; bill, straight, slender, half an inch long, and not notched 

 at the point, of a dark brown or black above, and whitish 

 below ; nostril, oblong ; eye, light hazel. The female wants 

 the points of white on the wing-coverts. The food of this 

 bird is derived from that great magazine of so many of the 

 feathered race, insects and their larvas, particularly such 

 as inhabit watery places, roots of bushes, and piles of old 

 timber. 



It were much to be wished that the summer residence, nest, 



VOL. I. K 



