210 
GREAT CAROLINA WREN. 
and very sharp ; bill, slender, slightly bent ; nostrils, promi- 
nent ; tongue, narrow, very tapering, sharp pointed, and horny 
at the extremity; eye, hazel. The female almost exactly 
resembles the male in plumage. 
From the above description, and a view of the figure, the 
naturalist will perceive that this species is truly a Certhia , or 
Creeper ; and indeed its habits confirm this, as it is continually 
climbing along the stalks of reeds, and other aquatic plants, in 
search of insects. 
GREAT CAROLINA WREN. — CERTHIA CAROLINIAN A. 
Plate XII. Fig. 5. 
Le Roitelet de la Louisiana, PI. enl. 730, fig. 1 Lath. Syn. vii. p. 507, var. b 
Le Troglodytes de la Louisiana, Buff. Ois. v. p. 361. — Motacilla Caroliniana, 
(regulus magnus,) JBartram , p. 291 Peale's Museum, No. 7248. 
TROGLODYTES LUDOVICIANUS. — Bonaparte. 
Troglodytes Ludovicianus, Bonap. Synop. p. 93. — The Great Carolina Wren, Aud. 
pi. 78. male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 399. 
This is another of those equivocal species that so often 
occur to puzzle the naturalist. The general appearance of 
this bird is such, that the most illiterate would at first sight | 
call it a Wren ; but the Common Wren of Europe, and the 
Winter Wren of the United States, are both Warblers, judging 
them according to the simple principle of Linnseus. The 
present species, however, and the preceding, (the Marsh 
Wren,) though possessing great family likeness to those above 
mentioned, are decisively Creepers, if the bill, the tongue, 
nostrils, and claws, are to be the criteria by which we are to 
class them. 
The colour of the plumage of birds is but an uncertain and 
inconstant guide ; and though in some cases it serves to furnish 
a trivial or specific appellation, yet can never lead us to the 
generic one. I have, therefore, notwithstanding the general 
