AVES. 333 
and are usually known by the name of “Sapsuckers,’ and one species 1s 
common in Europe (Sitta europea). 
The most common species of the United States is the white-breasted 
nuthatch (S. carolinensis), which is a very familiar and favorite little bird, 
living throughout the year in the same district, and, in fact, is supposed to 
ramble but little from the woods in which it was born. Its habits are very 
similar to those of the small woodpeckers, being seen constantly creeping 
on the surface of limbs and trunks of trees. So secure is its foothold, that 
it creeps equally well with its head upwards or downwards upon the tree, 
and is said to roost with the same indifference to position. It frequently 
in the winter approaches the precincts of dwellings or out-houses, and picks 
up whatever of insect or other suitable food it can discover. 
Two smaller species are occasionally met with in the United States, the 
red-bellied and the brown-headed nuthatches (S. canadensis and pusilla). 
They entirely resemble in habits the common species. Another and still 
smaller species (S. pygmea) is found in California. 
Some six or eight species of these little birds are peculiar to Australia 
and New Zealand. 
Sub-fam. 6. Trogiodyting, or Wrens. Bill more or less long and 
slender, usually slightly curved and somewhat compressed; wings short 
and rounded ; tail various, generally rounded ; tarsi long and slender ; toes 
long, rather slender. Size various, generally small. Colors plain. 
There are about fifty species of the true wrens, which inhabit all parts 
of the world except Africa. In America, they are more numerous than 
elsewhere, and are well represented by that universal favorite the house- 
wren of the United States (T'roglodytes edon), the history of which by the 
incomparable Wilson we beg leave to extract: “This well known and 
familiar bird arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle of April, and about 
the 8th or 10th of May begins to build his nest, sometimes in the wooden 
cornicing under the eaves or in a hollow tree, but most commonly in small 
boxes fixed on the top of a pole, in or near the garden, to which he is 
extremely partial, for the great number of caterpillars and other larvee which 
it constantly supplies him. If all these conveniences are wanting, he will 
even put up with an old hat, nailed on the weatherboards, with a small 
hole for entrance ; and if even this be denied him he will find some hole, 
corner, or crevice about the house, barn, or stable, rather than abandon the 
dwellings of man. In the month of June a mower hung up his coat, under 
a shed near the barn, and two or three days elapsed before he had occasion 
to put it on again; thrusting his arm up the sleeve, he found it completely 
filled with some rubbish, as he expressed it, and on extracting the whole 
mass found it to be the nest of a wren completely finished and lined with a 
large quantity of feathers. In his retreat he was followed by the little. 
forlorn proprietors, who scolded him with great vehemence for thus ruining 
the whole economy of their household affairs. The twigs with which the 
outward parts of the nest are constructed are short and crooked, that they 
may the better hook in with one another; and the hole or entrance is so 
much shut up, to prevent the intrusion of snakes or cats, that it appears 
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