15
Spring and early summer.
Concord, Mass.
1913

Song (?) of female House Wren

(House Wren) the next four weeks. On June 11th [June 11, 1913] and for a week or more
later they might be seen at all hours of the day entering it with food
for their young. Much of this they obtained from a space just above the
ground between the half-decayed front sill of the house and an outer board
casing. Entering this narrow space at one end they would soon emerge from
the other (after having traversed the entire width of the house) and then fly
straight to the box carrying in their bills what looked like small spiders.
During the next week or more I was absent from Concord much of
the time and hence was unable to keep a close watch on the Wrens
although I still saw them going to the box every now and then up
to about the 21st [June 21, 1913] when to my surprise I found that they had
abandoned it and were carrying food into the box over the grape
arbor in which their young were now chattering loudly and almost
incessantly. The brood left it on June 24th [June 24, 1913] and for several days later
were to be seen scattered along the brush grown stone walls bordering
the neighboring lawn, after which they ceased to be noted. How or why
they removed to the arbor box at least three days before winning
their freedom from all such shelters is more than I can conjecture.
From May 19 [May 19, 1913] to June 20 [June 20, 1913] no Wren was seen to visit it. When first
I saw the young along the lawn on the 25th [June 25, 1913] they looked small
and feeble and seemed scarce able to flutter more than a few yards
at a time. When this pair of Wrens were foraging about the
place before their nest was completed the [male] rarely sang without
being answered by his mate who with swelling throat and quivering
wings would utter a rather prolongued [prolonged] series of stuttering, halting,
unmusical yet song-like notes too feeble to be audible at a greater
distance than 50 or 60 yards and in their general effect reminding
me strongly of those which constitute the confused song of the 
Hedge Accentor or "Sparrow" of England. I heard them very
frequently up to May 23 [May 23, 1913], occasionally during the next week,
not once after June 1 [June 1, 1913]. They were sometimes given when the birds