190 
TROGLODYTES EUROP^EbS. 
If this bird, as some suppose, retires only to the upper 
regions of the county, and mountainous forests, to 
breed, as is the case with some others, it will account 
for his early and frequent residence along the Atlantic 
coast during the severest winters ; though I rather 
suspect that he proceeds considerably to the northward ,* 
as the snow bird, (f Hudsonicus ,) which arrives about 
the same time with the winter wren, does not even 
breed at Hudson’s Bay, but passes that settlement in 
June, on his way to the northward; how much farther 
is unknown. 
The length of the winter wren is three inches and a 
half, breadth, five inches ; the upper parts are of a 
general dark brown, crossed with transverse touches of 
black, except the upper parts of the head and neck, 
which are plain; the black spots on the back terminate 
in minute points of dull white ; the first row of wing- 
coverts is also marked with specks of 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 j 
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, not notched at the point, 
of a dark brown or black above, and whitish below ; 
nostril, oblong; eye, light hazel. The female wants the i 
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 larvae, particularly 
