bist Wel B:O NB CEL LeBel lN 43 
for the wrens immediately oust them and destroy their eggs.” Again 
in the same magazine ten years later he writes: ‘The House Wren 1s 
equally tyrannical, and no small bird can nest in its vicinity. Several 
pairs of Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, and a pair of Bewick’s 
Wrens, that had been with us all winter, and would have nested in boxes 
near the house but for the rascally House Wrens, who, though possessing 
boxes of their own, drove the other birds away.” Farther on he speaks 
of this destructive little demon saying: “The first House Wren ever 
seen or heard by me in southeastern I[llinois was noted in the vicinity 
of Olney some time near the year 1870. . . . Bewick’s Wren was 
THE ‘House’ Wren of the entire region. . . . In the vicinity of 
Olney, the House Wren is now by far the more numerous of the two, 
especially in the town itself; and, wherever it has chosen a home, Be- 
wick’s Wren is forced out, for Troglodytes will not brook the presence of 
any species, Wren, Chickadee, Titmouse, or Nuthatch, which requires 
similar nesting-sites. Thryomanes on the other hand is exceedingly 
tolerant of other species, and therefore is far the more desirable, especially 
since it is equally tame and a far better songster. = 
A half decade passed and again Mr. Ridgway spoke, this time in 
the [/linois Audubon Bulletin (1920). ‘The deposition is similar to that 
given above, and this is the heart-breaking part of it: that spring after 
spring it is the same old story for a score of years, even for fifty years, 
except that the story grows worse as the years advance; this is true not 
only at Olney, Illinois, but wherever the placing of boxes has contributed 
to an undue increase in the numbers of this species. It is neither de- 
sirable nor practical to quote all the evidence that has been recorded. 
In a rapid trans-continental survey only a few records can be mentioned. 
In Litchfield, Connecticut, more than twenty-five years ago the House 
Wren was denounced as a despoiler: “‘not a robber but a spoiler. He 
does not take other birds’ eggs and eat them. He pierces them with his 
sharp little bill and throws them out of the nest. My direct knowledge 
of this fact comes from his treatment of the Chipping Sparrow. I have 
seen the wren throw the eggs of the latter out of the nest.”” From Saint 
Johnsbury, Vermont, came the message: “‘We have seen them drop the 
Bluebirds’ eggs from the house door and take possession; which is more 
than the English Sparrow has done!’ Similar offenses against the Blue- 
bird were reported from Bristol, Connecticut; Hackettstown, New 
Jersey; Troy and Collins, New York, to mention only a few. In 
the magazines have been reported instances of his destruction of the 
eggs of the English Sparrow from Canton, Pennsylvania; of the 
Flicker and Robin from London, Ontario; of the Cardinal from 
Noblesville, Indiana, and from La Grange, Missouri; of the Texas Be- 
wick’s Wren from Wichita, Kansas; and of his usurpation of the boxes 
of Tree Swallow and Bluebird from Okanagan Landing, British 
Columbia. 
