GREAT CAROLINA WREN. 
193 
than in winter. In this last season their chirruping 1 
is frequently heard in gardens soon after daybreak, and 
along the borders of the great rivers of the southern 
States, not far from the sea coast. 
The great wren of Carolina is five inches and a 
quarter long, and seven broad ; the whole upper parts 
are reddish brown, the wings and tail being barred with 
black; a streak of yellowish white runs from the nostril 
over the eye, down the side of the neck, nearly to the 
back; below that, a streak of reddish brown extends 
from the posterior part of the eye to the shoulder; 
the chin is yellowish white ; the breast, sides, and belly, 
a light rust colour, or reddish buff; vent-feathers, 
white, neatly barred with black ; in the female, plain ; 
wing-coverts, minutely tipt with white ; legs and feet, 
flesh coloured, and very strong ; bill, three quarters of 
an inch long, strong, a little bent, grooved, and pointed, 
the upper mandible, bluish black, lower, light blue ; 
nostrils, oval, partly covered with a prominent convex 
membrane ; tongue, pointed and slender ; eyes, hazel ; 
tail, cuneiform, the two exterior feathers on each side 
three quarters of an inch shorter, whitish on their 
exterior edges, and touched with deeper black ; the 
same may be said of the three outer primaries. The 
female wants the white on the w ing-coverts ; but differs 
little in colour from the male. 
In this species I have observed a circumstance 
common to the house and winter wren, but wfliich is 
not found in the marsh wren ; the feathers of the lower 
part of the back, when parted by the hand, or breath, 
appear spotted with white, being at bottom deep ash, 
reddish brown at the surface, and each feather with a 
spot of white between these two colours. This, how- 
ever, cannot be perceived without parting the feathers. 
VOL. II. 
N 
7 
