198 
The Carolina Wren 
the high, wooded hills rising from either bank, cut with innumerable 
rocky ravines, the summer sun lighting up the whole landscape, bring to 
mind th£ clear, far-reaching notes of the Carolina Wren floating up from 
every side. 
In winter these Wrens and many Cardinals congregate in the low 
grounds bordering the tide-water creeks of southwestern New Jersey, 
where the sun shines more warmly than on the bleak hills of Pennsyl- 
vania. Here they find shelter and an abundance of food. 
The Carolina Wren is not entirely confined to these low grounds in 
winter, however, but ranges well up the narrow valleys on their border ; 
so that often we find him along the rocky banks of 
Haunts some ravine where flows a narrow, tumbling stream, 
and where the hemlocks of the North mingle with the 
red-buds and tulip-trees of the South. 
In such retreats in midwinter, when all is white with snow and the 
edges of the streams are fringed with ice, we are startled by his clear, 
ringing whistle — tea-kettle! tea-kettle ! tea-kettle! Suddenly he darts 
from behind some fallen log, all action, like the typical Wren he is, 
bobbing up and down on his slender legs, tail cocked in the air, his sharp 
eye constantly fixed upon the intruder; then drops out of sight in a 
moment, to reappear somewhere else in a perpetual game of hide-and- 
seek. 
To those who are familiar only with the House and Winter Wrens he 
seems too large for a Wren; indeed, he seems quite as large as a Song 
Sparrow, especially when his soft plumage is well fluffed up. His color 
is bright cinnamon-brown above, strongly tinted with the same below, but 
whitish on the throat, and with a conspicuous white line running over the 
eye down to the side of the neck. When we spread apart the long rump- 
feathers, we find many of them marked near the middle with round spots 
of white, which are entirely concealed unless the plumage be disarranged. 
The Carolina Wren, like the other members of his family, undergoes no 
change of plumage. Young or old, winter or summer, his dress is virtu- 
ally the same, differing merely in fullness of feather and depth or purity 
of tone. 
His most characteristic song has been likened by Mr. Chapman to tea- 
kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, and to whee-udle, whee-udle, whee-udle. 
Wilson wrote it sweet-william, sweet-william , sweet-william ; and to 
Audubon it seemed to say come-to-me, come-to-me, come-to-me. It has 
variations recalling forms in the Cardinal’s song, and 
A Versatile a l so t h e x u ft e d Titmouse; and the Wren, 
after repeating one form for some time, often changes 
suddenly to another, producing a rather startling effect, as if another 
bird has taken his place. Wren-like chucks of annoyance or interroga- 
tion are heard when a stranger appears on the scene; and a peculiar 
fluttering k-r-r-r-r-uck, which resembles the bleating call of the tree-toad 
more than anything else. 
The Carolina Wren is often termed Mocking Wren, on the supposi- 
