A BIRD OF PASSAGE. 
113 
in low and. watery situations. The more aspiring Blue Mountain 
warbler delights in the silence and solitude of the breezy heights. To 
the upper branches of the maple woods the black-poll warbler betakes 
himself; while the wanderer in the Kentucky "barrens," and on the 
borders of the open plains, is clieered by the regularly-repeated notes 
of the prairie warbler. The pine-creeping warbler is found, as his 
name indicates, in the piny woods, murmuring with mysterious voices, 
of the Southern States. So numerous are the species ; and so different 
are the " local habitations " which they affect. 
TROGLODYTES. 
The wrens, too, are birds of passage. With the fresh green beauty 
of the spring they come ; the diminutive golden-crested wren, the 
familiar house-wren, the great Carolina wren, the marsh-wren, 
and others of the well-known and always welcome tribe. The 
scientific generic name is Troglodytes; and if the reader asks, Wliy 
troglodytes? we reply, Because of old, as Herodotus tells us, on the 
shores of the Red Sea dwelt a wild race of people, sheltering them- 
selves in caverns. Hence they were called troglodytes, from their 
partiality to such gloomy retreats (rpwyXr]). When the wise men 
of France were called upon to baptize a charming little bird, 
distinguished by his affection for human society, — an affection 
springing, we fear, out of ignorance ! — and his habit of exploring 
holes and corners, they resorted for a name to the aforesaid savage 
race ; bestowing it at the same time on a very large family of apes. 
The reader may not, at first, understand why the designation appro- 
priate to an orang-outang should also be applied to a little bird ; 
but the word troglodytes is Greek, and Greek always sounds well 
in nomenclature. And what would become of science, if it were 
compelled to explain all its reasons to ordinary mortals? 
The wren is not simply insectivorous ; he is a great slayer of 
caterpillars. We are told that a couple of wrens will carry to 
their family a hundred and fifty-six caterpillars for a day's supply. 
It is the wren's custom to forage everywhere ; to pry into all the 
chinks and hollows of walls, decayed trees, and wood- work generally. 
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