WINTER WREN. 
145 
white at the extremities of the black, and tipt minutely with 
black ; the next row is tipt with points of white ; the primaries 
are crossed with alternate rows of black and cream colour ; 
inner vanes of all the quills, dusky, except the three secondaries 
next the body ; tips of the wings, dusky ; throat, line over the 
eye, sides of the neck, ear-feathers and breast, dirty white, 
with minute transverse touches of a drab or clay colour ; sides 
under the wings, speckled with dark brown, black, and dirty 
white ; belly and vent, thickly mottled with sooty black, deep 
brown, and pure white, in transverse touches ; tail, very short, 
consisting of twelve feathers, the exterior one on each side a 
quarter of an inch shorter, the rest lengthening gradually to 
the middle ones; legs and feet, a light clay colour, and pretty 
stout ; bill, straight, slender, half an inch long, and not notched 
at the point, of a dark brown or black above, and whitish 
below; nostril, oblong; eye, light hazel. The female wants 
the points of white on the wing-coverts. The food of this 
bird is derived from that great magazine of so many of the 
feathered race, insects and their larvse, particularly such as 
inhabit watery places, roots of bushes, and piles of old timber. 
It were much to be wished that the summer residence, nest, 
and eggs of this bird, were precisely ascertained, which would 
enable us to determine whether it be, what I strongly suspect 
it is, the same species as the common domestic Wren of 
Britain.* 
* There is a very great alliance between the British and American specimens ; 
and all authors who have described this bird and that of Europe, have done so 
with uncertainty. Wilson evidently had a doubt, both from what he says, and 
from marking the species and his synonyms with a query. Vieillot had doubts, 
and Bonaparte goes a good deal on his authority, but points out no difference 
between the birds. Mr Swainson, in the Northern Zoology , has described a 
bird, as that of Vieillot’s, killed on the shores of Lake Huron, and proves 
distinctly, that the plumage, and some of the relative proportions vary. It is 
likely, that there are two American species concerned in this, — one northern, 
another extending to the south, and that one perhaps may be identical with 
that of Europe : one certainly seems distinct. I have retained hyemalis with 
a mark of doubt, it being impossible to determine those so closely allied, 
without an examination of numerous species — Ed. 
VOL. I. 
K 
