Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
Six to eight minutely speckled, flesh-colored eggs suffice to 
keep the nervous, irritable parents in a state bordering on frenzy 
whenever another bird comes near their habitation. With tail 
erect and head alert, the father mounts on guard, singing a per- 
fect ecstasy of love to his silent little mate, that sits upon the nest 
if no danger threatens ; but both rush with passionate malice 
upon the first intruder, for it must be admitted that Jenny wren 
is a sad shrew. 
While the little family is being reared, or, indeed, at any 
time, no one is wise enough to estimate the millions of tiny in- 
sects from the garden that find their way into the tireless bills of 
these wrens. 
It is often said that the house wren remains at the north all 
the year, which, though not a fact, is easily accounted for by the 
coming of the winter wrens just as the others migrate in the 
autumn, and by their return to Canada when Jenny wren makes 
up her feather-bed under the eaves in the spring. 
Carolina Wren 
( Tbryotborus ludovicianus) Wren family 
Called also: MOCKING WREN 
Length — 6 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English sparrow. 
Male and Female — Chestnut-brown above. A whitish streak, be- 
ginning at base of bill, passes through the eye to the nape of 
the neck. Throat whitish. Under parts light buff-brown. 
Wings and tail finely barred with dark. 
Range — United States, from Gulf to northern Illinois and southern 
New England. 
Migrations — A common resident except at northern boundary of 
range, where it is a summer visitor. 
This largest of the wrens appears to be the embodiment of 
the entire family characteristics: it is exceedingly active, nervous, 
and easily excited, quick-tempered, full of curiosity, peeping into 
every hole and corner it passes, short of flight as it is of wing, 
inseparable from its mate till parted by death, and a gushing 
lyrical songster that only death itself can silence. It also has the 
wren-like preference for a nest that is roofed over, but not too 
near the homes of men. 
116 
