WRENS : WINTER HOUSE WREN 
535 
confusing mass of billows against some trees and drifts that had collected 
on them. I felt quite sure that they had all been hammered to pieces 
in the drifts, or drowned. However, regaining the bank, I went down 
stream some distance to see if I could get any trace of them. One 
was quietly perched on a snag just above the foam on a drift. Below 
this point I saw three others on stones and on the bank, flirting their 
tails and dipping their bills, imitating the action of the adult birds, all 
very willing to hop into the stream, which was leaping and tumbling 
at every point. I soon saw that they were at home, and amply able 
to care for themselves, although a few seconds before they had had 
their introduction to water.” As he concludes, one can but admire 
and respect these brave little birds of the wild mountain streams. 
“The wilder it is, the more they seem to enjoy themselves” (MS). 
Additional Literature.—Henderson, Junius, Bird-Lore, X, 1-7, 1908.— 
Keyser, L., Birds of the Rockies, 162-174, 1902.— Miller, O. T., A Bird Lover 
in the West, 76-85, 1894.— Muir, John, Our National Parks, 238-240, 1901; The 
Mountains of California, 276-299, 1894.— Skinner, M. P., Condor, XXIV, 18-21, 
1922 (in Yellowstone).— Willard, J. M., Bull. Cooper Ornith. Club ( = Condor, 
vol. 1), 23-24, 1899. 
WRENS: Family Troglodytidae 
The Wrens are small brown birds mainly six inches or less long 
(Cactus Wren eight inches). They live largely in undergrowth, both 
sexes being protected by the same inconspicuous plumage. Unlike 
the family of Titmice, Chickadees, etc., in the Wrens the bill is 
unnotched, the nostrils are exposed, overhung by a scale. The wings 
are short, more or less rounded, of ten primaries, the tail, unlike that 
in the family of Creepers, never rigid nor acuminate, more or 
less rounded, often held over the back. “They are active, nervous 
little creatures . . . Their notes of alarm or displeasure are loud, 
harsh and insistent, but the songs of most species are marked by 
sweetness and brilliancy of execution. Their irrepressible energy 
finds expression in nests of great size or complex structure as well as 
in exceptionally large sets of eggs” (Chapman). 
WESTERN HOUSE WREN: Troglddytes aedon parkmani Audubon 
Description. — Length: t.2-5.2 inches, wing 2-2.2, tail 1.8-2.1, bill .4-.5, tarsus 
.G-.7. Adults: Upperparts dull brown , barred milk blackish except on head, strongest 
on wings and tail; rump with concealed white spots; underparts dingy, sides and 
flanks lightly barred. Young in Juvenal plumage: Breast mottled with blackish. 
Range. —Breeds in Lower Canadian, Transition, and Upper Sonoran Zones 
from southern British Columbia, northern Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and 
southern Manitoba south to southern Illinois, southern Missouri, southwestern 
Texas, Arizona, and San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California. 
State Records. —The breeding range of the Western House Wren includes the 
whole of the mountains of New Mexico up to about 9,000 feet. It was common 
in the Zuni Mountains June 15, 1909, as high as shelter could be found at 8,500- 
9,000 feet (Goldman), and breeds commonly at Cloudcroft, 9,000 feet (Green). 
