GREAT CAROLINA WREN. 229 
of a fence rail, top of a stump, or even to the topmost branch of a solitary 
tree, it pours forth a succession of notes more varied and nearly as loud 
as those of the Brown Thrush This song is prolonged until he seems 
to have silenced «li the less gifted songsters in the neighborhood; then 
with a downward flight he seeks the retirement of his favorite thicket 
and the company, of his approving mate. It has still another note, loud 
and emphatic, the most frequently heard of all, which an acquaintance 
renders “ Jaeger chéats, Jaeger cheats, Jaeger cheats.” I can vouch for the 
truthfulness of the paraphrase, the charge is doubtless unfounded. These 
notes are heard both in winter and summer, the prolonged performance 
is heard only in spring and early summer. 
These birds have apparently been increasing in numbers, in this 
vicinity, in late years. Certainly more of them are seen, and breed, 
within the city limits than formerly. The nest is placed in the interior 
of a bara, shed or other building, or if in the woods, in the cavity of a log 
or stump. Sometimes quite a large cavity is’ filled with leaves, grass, 
feathers and other materials. The nest is frequently roofed over having 
an entrance on the side. The female lays from five to seven eggs, reddish 
white, thickly spotted with various shades of reddish brown. They vary 
in size and shape in the same nest, and measure from .75 to .70 by .65 to 
.60. Mr. Charles Dury, of Avondale, Ohio, records (.c ) that one pair of 
birds built three nests, each containing five eggs, by the 19th of July, the. 
male caring for the young while the female was engaged in building, 
laying and incubating for the succeeding brood. When breeding in the - 
woods the old birds manifest considerabie ingenuity in protecting their 
young, one of them attracting the attention of the intruder, and by vari- 
ous arts endeavoring to draw him from the spot, while the : ther stealthily 
escorts first one and then another of the fledglings to a: place of safety. 
The Carolina Wren frequently climbs trees. On the first occasion that 
I noticed this habit, a pair of them ascended the trunk of a large oak tree 
for more than fifty feet. They accomplished this exactly in the manner 
of the Creeper, now moving up and now circling around, only stopping 
a moment, now and then, to peer and pick in the crevices of the bark, 
and at short intervals uttering a single note like that of the Nuthatch, 
but lower and softer. JI have several times witnessed the same actions. 
There is a marked variation in color among these birds. Some have 
the brown cof upper parts decidedly suffused with ashy, the under parts 
whitish or ashy without a trace of tawny on breast or abdomen; others 
have the upper parts rich dark red-brown with hardly a trace of ashy 
even on the head, while the under parts are bright uniform ferrugineous. 
Between these extremes every intermediate phase may be found. These 
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