UN 
Ur 
Mar., 1920 | THE NESTING HABITS OF THE ALASKA WREN 
As nearly as I can judge from one pair of wrens, the period of incubation 
lasts eleven days, and the young in this same nest were fed for twenty-two 
days. When the eggs are hatched the male abandons his usual haunts, and 
with his mate collects insects from foggy morn to yet more foggy eve. When 
this brood is dismissed a second one may be reared the same season. In 1918, for 
example, Mr. E. C. Crompton, government agent on St. George, reported to 
me the discovery of a nest that was left by the young about the middle of July. 
During the following week the female deposited a second set of eggs. 
Such in brief, is the biography of the Alaska Wren, otherwise known in 
native parlance as the ‘‘limmershin’’ or chew-of-tobacco. A veritable pigmy 
he is when compared with other species comprising the feathered hordes that 
repair to the cliffs of St. George Island; but none battles more valiantly with 
the elements, or labors with greater industry, or contrives with a higher degree 
of cunning to protect his home, than does this tiny denizen of the frozen north. 
‘‘May his tribe live long and prosper’’. 
Stanford University, Califorma, February 6, 1920. 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
By HENRY WETHERBEE HENSHAW 
(Continued from page 10) 
TRIP THROUGH THE NORTHWEST IN CONNECTION WITH THE TENTH CENSUS 
N THE FALL of 1880 and the spring of 1881 I made an extensive trip 
| through the northwestern states and visited all the Indian reservations in 
Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California in connection 
with a census of the Indian tribes, which had been put in charge of Major Pow- 
ell. He saw in it much more than the opportunity to obtain an accurate enum- 
eration of the Indians of the United States, and expected to secure important 
information on the present status of the tribes, their advance in eivilization and 
education, their future needs, and much ethnologie and anthropologie data for 
study and publication. A large amount of miscellaneous information was in 
fact gathered on carefully prepared schedules, but lack of funds prevented its 
ultimate elaboration into published form. 
AM ARRESTED AND FINED 
While in Oregon an amusing incident occurred by which I fell into the 
clutches of the law, the first and only time in my long experience as a bird col- 
lector. Being detained in Albany, Oregon, for a few days because of a flood 
which interfered with the operation of the stages and railroads to the south, I 
employed an hour’s leisure in collecting a few birds on the outskirts of the 
town. by no means so large then as now. Fate played me a sorry trick by lead- 
ing me to collect a number of curious looking Shore Larks directly in front of 
the house of the constable, who proceeded to instill the fear of the law into my 
heart by a fine of ten dollars. As, however, the birds subsequently proved to 
