142 
WINTER WREN. 
WINTER WREN. — SYLVIA TROGLODYTES. 
Plate VIII. Fig. 6. 
Motacilla troglodytes? Linn. — Peale's Museum , No. 7284. 
TROGLODYTES HYEMALIS ?— Vieillot. 
Troglodytes Europeus Leach, Bonap. Synop. p. 93. — Troglodytes hyemalis, Vieill. 
Encyc. Meth. ii. p. 470 North Zool. ii. p. 318. 
This little stranger visits us from the north in the month of 
October, sometimes remaining with us all the winter, and is 
always observed, early in spring, on his route back to his 
breeding place. In size, colour, song, and manners, he ' 
and generally in company with the Gold-crested Wrens. The activity of their | 
motions in search of food, or in dispute with one another ; the variety of their j 
cries, from something very shrill and timid, to loud and wild ; their sometimes | 
elegant, sometimes grotesque attitudes, contrasted by the difference of form ; 
and the varied flights, from the short dart and jerk of the Marsh and Cole 
Titmouse, or Gold-crested Wren, to the stringy successive line of the long-tailed 
one, — are objects which have, no doubt, called forth the notice of the ornitho- 
logist, who has sometimes allowed himself to examine them in their natural 
abodes. The form of the different species is nearly alike, thick-set, stout, and 
short, the legs comparatively strong, the whole formed for active motion, and 
uniting strength for the removal of loose bark, moss, or even rotten wood, 
in search of their favourite food, insects ; it, however, varies in two species of 
this country, (one of which will form a separate sub-division,) the long- 
tailed and the bearded Titmice, ( P . caudatus and hiarmicus ,) in the weaker j 
frame and more lengthened shape of the tail ; and it may be remarked, that j 
both these make suspended nests, the one in woods, of a lengthened form 
and beautiful workmanship, generally hung near the extremity of a branch i 
belonging to some thick silver, spruce, or Scotch fir ; the other balanced and 
waving among reeds, like some of the aquatic Warblers ; while all the other 
species, and indeed all those abroad with whose nidification I am acquainted, 
choose some hollow tree or rent wall, for their place of breeding. In a 
Brazilian species, figured by Temminck, the tail assumes a forked shape. 
Insects are not their only food, though perhaps the most natural. When 
the season becomes too inclement for this supply, they become granivorous, 
and will plunder the farm yards, or eat grain and potatoes, with the poultry 
and pigs. Some I have seen so domesticated, (the common blue and 
