her anger, however, and there is no mouse-like meekness about her; she becomes a tiny shrew, almost thrusting her bill in your face as she pierces your ears with her persist-ent, "Chit-chit-chit-chit!"
Forgive her for this; it is merely a bad habit, not really an attack, and even while she scolds, her mate is off perching on the pointed top of the clothes-post, head raised high as if he would allow no unnecessary curve in his neck to impede his outburst of sparkling song. "Foive notes to wanst," was the Irish labourer's comment upon this song. "Foive notes to wanst," it is, and I defy any one to render this appoggiatura into intelligible syllables.
The Wrens are a most particular bird about the care of their nest, and, though inhabiting pent-up places, their homes are singularly free from vermin. Its industry is very great in collecting the insects upon which it feeds, both itself and the young, and oftentimes it seizes small butterflies when on the wing. Usually, as many as twenty pairs of these Wrens build in the garden bird-boxes and about the barn and sheds. One nest, last year, was placed in an old leather mitten which was left on a shelf in the tool house; the birds going in and out through the wrist, and, after stuffing the thing entirely full of sticks, to give stability, they lined a little depression with soft duck feathers.
Winter Wren: Troglodytes hiemalis.
- Winter Wren:
- Troglodytes hiemalis.
- Length:
- 3.90-4.10 inches.
- Male and Female:
- Colour very similar to House Wren, but the under parts rusty, dimly and finely barred with dark. Tail and bill short, the latter dark, and slender; feet dark.
- Song:
- Strong, and very musical; not often heard here. Call note, "tr-T-r-r-r-r."
- Season:
- Winter resident, arriving often in October. A summer resident of northern New England.
- Breeds
- Northern New England, northern portions of New York State, and Pennsylvania northward.
- Nest:
- In odd nooks, crevices, logs, etc. Of twigs mixed with moss, hair, and feathers.
