WINTER WREN. 
271 
and Gray, so that it must retire to the Western or mountainous 
solitudes to pass the period of incubation. Mr. Townsend 
obtained specimens of this bird in the forests of the Colum- 
bia. During its residence in the Middle States it frequents 
the broken banks of rivulets, old roots, and decayed logs near 
watery places in quest of its insect food. As in Europe, it also 
approaches the farm-house, examines the wood-pile, erecting 
its tail, and creeping into the interstices like a mouse. It 
frequently mounts on some projecting object and sings with 
great animation. In the gardens and outhouses of the city it 
appears equally familiar as the more common House Wren. 
The Wren has a pleasing warble, and much louder than 
might be expected from its diminutive size. Its song likewise 
continues more or less throughout the year, — even during the 
prevalence of a snowstorm it has been heard as cheerful as 
ever ; it likewise continues its note till very late in the evening, 
though not after dark. 
This species is common throughout the Eastern States, breeding 
in northern New England and north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
and westward through northern Ohio and Ontario to Manitoba. 
During the summer it occurs also, sparingly, on the Berkshire Hills 
in Massachusetts. It winters from about 40° southward. 
Had Nuttall ever met with the Winter Wren in its summer 
haunts ; had he heard its wild melody break the stillness of the 
bird’s forest home, or known of the power controlled by that tiny 
throstle and of its capacity for brilliant execution; had he but once 
listened to its sweet and impassioned tones, and the suggestive 
joyousness of its rapid trills; had Nuttall, in short, ever heard 
the bird sing, — he could not, surely, have damned it with such 
faint praise. 
The song of this Wren is not well known, for the bird seldom 
sings beyond the nesting period, and then is rarely heard away 
from the woodland groves. But once heard, the song is not soon 
forgotten ; it is so wild and sweet a lay, and is flung upon the 
woodland quiet with such energy, such hilarious abandon, that it 
commands attention. Its merits entitle it to rank among the best 
of our sylvan melodies. 
