542 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
In winter, on the Carlsbad Bird Reserve, it was noted in January, 1915, during 
the winter of 1915-1916 [common in December, 1916 (Willett) ]. At the south end 
of the San Mateo Mountains, one was seen at Monticello, December 7-10, 1915 
(Ligon); Ion the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant Butte), it was noted November 
23-December 9, 1916 (Willett) ].—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In cholla and cane cactus, yucca, catsclaw, mesquite, shrubby hackberry, 
blue thorn or other thorny bushes; retort-shaped, with horizontal, tunnel-like 
entrance; the globular chamber made of plant fibers lined with feathers, the entrance 
of straw-like plant stems. Eggs: 3 to 7, whitish or buffy, ground color often hidden 
by reddish brown spotting. 
Food. —Vegetable, about 17 per cent, including weed seed, cactus fruit, elder¬ 
berry, and cascara; animal, about 83 per cent, including ants and wasps, weevils, 
grasshoppers, bugs, black scales, caterpillars, and cocoons (one with lizard two 
inches long, T. I. Storer). ‘‘The bird sustains the good reputation of its family” 
(Beal). 
General Habits. —The large Cactus Wren, with his heavily 
spotted breast, caught sight of perhaps as he flies from a cactus or 
yucca to a thorny mesquite, adds a grateful touch of desert life to the 
interesting landscape with its strange plant forms, so marvelously 
adapted to their conditions. His song, which he sings with abandon— 
head thrown back and tail hanging—seems as shorn of ornament as 
the cactus, but, grating and monotonous as it is, harmonizes so well 
with his surroundings that he seems, indeed, to sing the song of the 
desert. In the hot dry days of summer, Professor Merrill says, he 
will find *a shady place in a tall bush or perhaps on a telegraph cross 
arm and intermittently for hours keep up his ‘Chur-cha-ra, chur-cha-ra , 
chur-cha-ra , chur-cha-ra J that sounds like milling two small granite 
stones together (MS). In winter he is not quite so noisy as in summer, 
but apparently is never silent. 
Aftei crossing the arid plains where the cane cactus ( O'puntia 
arborescens) grows, as on the desert-like tracts where the cholla cactus 
abounds, the appropriateness of the name Cactus Wren is impressed 
upon you, for the retort-like nests are seen on every hand. The little 
builders do not confine themselves to the many kinds of cactus, however, 
but nest in equally safe thorny bushes and sharp-bladed trees. The 
bayonet-pointed heads of the tree yucca ( Yucca radiosa) are often 
chosen, judging by the number of places where we found the Wrens 
singing among them, notably at Deming, Silver City, Mangas Creek, 
Cliff, and Cactus Flat. Two nests seen were safely placed between 
the spears of adjoining yucca heads. It would have taken a brave 
owl indeed to disturb that mother Wren’s slumbers! A tasteful nest 
found near Deming in a yucca top was made wholly of white yucca 
threads, with a billfull of Angora wool for lining. On the side of the 
ban Andres Mountains, Mr. Ligon has found more aesthetic Wrens 
nesting in “ desert roses,” as the cane cactus is called. 
