WRENS: CACTUS WREN 
543 
In southwestern New Mexico, where the nests were abundant in all 
suitable localities, Mr. Anthony found them usually in groups of 
from four or five to a dozen, six or seven often being seen in one mesquite. 
At first he supposed that the birds nested in colonies, but by watching 
discovered that a collection of nests would be used by one or at most 
two pairs of birds, the males presumably roosting in the dummy nests. 
The last of October he found the Wrens relining and thickening the 
walls and lengthening the tunnel-like entrances to their nests, and they 
kept on with their work during pleasant weather until the middle of 
December, when “all the nests in the vicinity were so thoroughly 
repaired that they had the appearance of new nests, ready to afford 
shelter during storms or cold, windy weather (1891, pp. 133-134). 
Two such nests were found by Mr. Bailey at Cactus Flat early in 
November, with freshly arranged dried grasses ready for occupancy 
on the cold dewy nights. 
In southern Arizona one winter when I made a careful study of 
Cactus Wren nests, practically all the birds seen at the nests went to 
roost at sunset. On my twilight rounds, to my surprise a Baird 
Bewick Wren was twice flushed from one of its neighbor’s nests. 
Thirty-five out of a total of sixty-four nests examined were not only 
protected by the entangling thorns of surrounding branches but were 
built within clusters of the red-flowered mistletoe, which, in many 
cases, partially or wholly concealed them. The nest is normally 
about twelve inches long. The globular nest chamber, about six inches 
in both diameter and length, as I noted, “in course of years becomes 
a thick felted mass of gray, weathered plant fibers so hard that saucer¬ 
like sections sometimes crack off from the back, showing the solid, 
sodden bottom of the nest. In one old globe examined, parts of eighteen 
species of plants were found. 
The entrance to the nest chamber is made of long straw-like plant 
stems, which may easily get blown about and so often need replenish¬ 
ing. When the old nests are repaired and ready for winter use these 
new straw-colored entrances often afford a striking contrast to the 
old gray globes, although occasionally the new material is lavishly 
distributed over the whole top of the nest. 
In relining, the Wrens often use the small gray body-feathers of 
the Gambel Quail and other birds. Scaled feathers of the Scaled Quail 
and yellow ones of the Verdin were found. One nest had its sleeping 
chamber so thickly lined with soft feathers that it suggested a feather 
bed. Sometimes, in the process of repair, for reasons best known to 
the little carpenter, the angle of the entrance was changed, in one case 
making the new nest face almost at right angles to the old. The 
contrast in angle was emphasized by the color difference, the old nest 
