114 
EOCK WREN". 
which border the bottom of Hare’s Fork of the Siskadee (or Colorado of 
the West), I heard, and at length saw this curious Mountain Wren. Its 
actions are those of the Carolina species, Troglodytes ludovicianus. The 
old female (as I supposed) sat upon a ledge of rock at the head of a high 
ravine in the bluff, cocking her tail, and balancing herself, at the same time 
uttering a tshurr, tshurr, and te aigh, with a strong guttural accent, and 
now and then, when approached, like the common Short-billed Marsh 
Wren, Troglodytes brevirostris, a quick guttural tshe de de. It has also 
a shrill call at times, as it perches on a stone on the summit of some hill, 
again similar to the note of the Carolina Wren, occasionally interrupted 
by a tshurr. Among these arid and bare hills of the central table-land 
they were quite common. The old ones were feeding and watching 
a brood of four or five young, which, though fully grown, were protected 
and cherished with the querulous assiduity so characteristic of the other 
Wrens. They breed under the rocky ledges where we so constantly 
observed them, under which they skulk at once when surprised, and perti- 
naciously hide in security, like so many rats. Indeed so suddenly do they 
disappear among the rocks, and remain so silent in their retreat, that it is 
scarcely possible to believe them beneath your feet till after a lapse of a 
few minutes you begin to hear a low cautious chirp, and the next moment, 
at the head of the ravine, the old female probably again appears, scolding 
and jerking in the most angry attitudes she is capable of assuming. In 
the same rocky retreats they are commonly accompanied by a kind of 
small striped Ground Squirrel, like that of the eastern coast in many 
respects, but much smaller. These little animals, which are numerous, 
the White-chinned Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris of Richardson and Swainson, 
and the Raven frequently hover over and pounce upon. We met with this 
species as far west as the lowest falls of the Columbia, or within a few 
miles of Fort Yan Couver, but among rocks and cliffs as usual.” 
Troglodytes obsoleta, Say, Long’s Exped. 
Troglodytes obsoleta, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 6. 
Rocky Mountain Wren, Troglodytes obsoleta , Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 435. 
Rock Wren, Troglodytes obsoletus, And. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 443. 
Adult Female. 
Bill nearly as long as the head, slender, slightly arched, compressed 
toward the end ; upper mandible with the sides convex towards the end, flat 
and declinate at the base, the edges sharp and overlapping, with a very slight 
notch close to the declinate tip ; lower mandible with the angle long and 
narrow, the dorsal line very slightly concave, the sides sloping outwards and 
