WINTER WREN. 
129 
beginning of spring. Playfully and with alacrity it performs the 
task, hopping from one stump or fallen log to another, flitting from twig 
to twig, from bush to bush, here and there flying a few yards ; feeding, 
singing, and bustling on, as if quite careless as to time or distance. It 
has reached the shore of some broad stream, and here a person ignorant 
of its habits might suppose it would be stopped ; but no, it spreads its 
wings, and glides over like a meteor. 
I have found the Winter Wren in the lower parts of Louisiana, and in 
the Floridas, in December and January, but never saw one there after the 
end of the latter month. Their stay in those parts rarely exceeds three 
months ; two more are employed in forming a nest and rearing their 
broods ; and as they leave Labrador by the middle of August at the latest, 
they probably spend more than half of the year in travelling. It would be 
interesting to know whether those which breed along the Columbia river, 
near the Pacific Ocean, visit the shores of our Atlantic States. My frieud 
Thomas Nuttall informs me that he occasionally saw the Winter Wren 
feeding its young in the woods, along the north-west coast. 
At Eastport, in Maine, when on my way to Labrador, I found this species 
in full song, and extremely abundant, although the air was chill, and icicles 
hung from every rock, it being then the 9th of May. On the 11th of June, 
I found it equally plentiful in the Magdeleine Islands, and wondered how it 
could have made its way there, but was assured by the inhabitants that none 
were ever seen in winter. On the 20th of July, I met with it at Labrador, 
and again asked myself, how it could possibly have reached those remote 
and rugged shores ? Was it by following the course of the St. Lawrence, 
or by flying from one island to another across the Gulf? I have seen it in 
almost every State of the Union, but only twice found it breeding there, 
once near the Mohawk river in New York, and again in the Great Pine 
Swamp in Pennsylvania. It breeds abundantly in Maine, and probably in 
Massachusetts, but few spend the winter even in the latter State. 
The song of the Winter Wren excels that of any other bird of its size 
with which I am acquainted. It is truly musical, full of cadence, energetic, 
and melodious ; its very continuance is surprising, and dull indeed must be 
the ear that thrills not on hearing it. When emitted, as it often is, from the 
dark depths of the unwholesome swamp, it operates so powerfully on the 
mind, that it by contrast inspires a feeling of wonder and delight, and on 
such occasions has usually impressed me with a sense of the goodness of the 
Almighty Creator, who has rendered every spot of earth in some way sub- 
servient to the welfare of his creatures. 
Once when travelling through a portion of the most gloomy part of a 
thick and tangled wood, in the GreatPine Forest, not far from Mauch Chunk 
Vol. II. 22 
