HOUSE AY REN. 
173 
it is also migratory; and has the tail and bill much longer. Its food 
is insects and caterpillars, and while supplying the wants of its young, 
it destroys, on a moderate calculation, many hundreds a day, and 
greatly circumscribes the ravages of these vermin. It is a bold and in- 
solent bird against those of the Titmouse or Woodpecker kind that ven- 
ture to build within its jurisdiction ; attacking them -without hesitation, 
though twice its size, and generally forcing them to decamp. I have 
known him drive a pair of swallows from their newly formed nest, and 
take immediate possession of the premises, in which his female also laid 
her eggs and reared her young. Even the Blue-bird, who claims an 
equal, and sort of hereditary right to the box in the garden, when at- 
tacked by this little impertinent, soon relinquishes the contest, the mild 
placidness of his disposition not being a match for the fiery impetuosity 
of his little antagonist. With those of Ins own species, who settle and 
build near him, he has frequent squabbles ; and when their respective 
females are sitting, each strains his whole powers of song to excel the 
other. When the young are hatched, the hurry and press of business 
leave no time for disputing, so true it is that idleness is the mother of 
mischief. These birds are not confined to the country ; they are to be 
heard on the tops of the houses in the most central part of our cities, 
singing with great energy. Scarce a house or cottage in the country is 
without at least a pair of them, and sometimes two ; but unless where 
there is a large garden, orchard, and numerous outhouses, it is not often 
the case that more than one pair reside near the same spot, owing to 
their party disputes and jealousies. It has been said by a friend to 
this little bird, that " the esculent vegetables of a whole garden may, 
perhaps, be preserved from the depredations of different species of 
insects, by ten or fifteen pair of these small birds,"* and probably they 
might, were the combination practicable ; but such a congregation of 
Wrens, about one garden, is a phenomenon not to be expected but from 
a total change in the very nature and disposition of the species. 
Having seen no accurate description of this bird in any European 
publication, I have confined my references to Mr. Bartram and Mr. 
Peale ; but though Europeans are not ignorant of the existence of this 
bird, they have considered it, as usual, merely as a slight variation from 
the original stock (31. troglodytes), their own Wren; in which (hey are, 
as usual, mistaken ; the length and bent form of the bill, its notes, 
migratory habits, long tail, and red eggs, are sufficient specific dif- 
ferences. 
The House Wren inhabits the whole of the United States, in all of 
which it is migratory. It leaves Pennsylvania in September; I have 
sometimes, though rarely, seen it in the beginning of October. It is 
* Barton's Fragments, Part i,, p. 22. 
