30 



HOUSE WREN. 



{Troglodytes Aedon.) 



A brave pugnacious little bird is this one. He is 

 one of our good singers and conies to us early in the 

 year or bird season. This bird delights to live near 

 man and it will build its nest almost any place where 

 it can get room, in little boxes or houses, holes in 

 walls or timber, large cracks or unoccupied garments 

 that may be left hanging loosely about. The nest is 

 composed of coarse sticks and lined with feathers. 

 Eggs, six or seven in number, of a light reddish brown 

 color freckled. Its plumage is a uniform russet brown. 

 I have known this wren to chase the English sparrow 

 out of a house and tear out all their nest and then 

 take full possession. The wood wren is another spe- 

 cies of somewhat the same description excepting the 

 nest, which is placed on or near the ground. The 

 eggs are a little larger and brighter colored, also a 

 darker ring around the large end. The winter wren is 

 not so common in this section, only to be seen in win- 

 ter hopping about our buildings and wood piles and 

 around over the snow-covered bushes. This species 

 goes north in spring to their nesting grounds and 

 summer home. The longbilled marsh wren is another 

 very interesting species which lives in swampy or shore 

 localities where they may be seen in great numbers 

 flying hither and thither among the sedge grass and 

 rushes. It is also skilled in architecture, making a 

 fine little woven nest nearly globular in form with an 

 entrance in the side with a small porch over it. 



