Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/488



Although I feel much pleasure in introducing this new species to you, I regret that I am yet unable to speak with certainty of its summer haunts, or of the extent of its migration in the United States. A family of Wrens of this species were shot by my sons in a deep wood, eight or ten miles from Eastport in Maine, in the summer of 18D2. The young were following their parents through the dark and tangled recesses of their favourite places of abode, busily engaged in search of their insect prey ; but their nest was not seen. Some weeks afterwards three adult birds of the same kind were shot near Dennisville in the same district ; and, on shewing them to my young and inteUigent friend Thomas Lincoln, Esq. he told me that they bred in hollow logs in the woods, and seldom if ever approached the farms. He had seen the eggs, but, considering it a common species there, had made no notes of their number or colour ; nor had he attended to the form or materials of their nest. My drawing was made at that place.

Last winter, while at Charleston, I saw many of them : they had much the same habits as in Maine, remaining in thick hedges along ditches, in the woods, and also not far distant from plantations. I procured several through the assistance of my friend John Bachman, which now form part of my large collection of skins of American birds. The notes of this species differ considerably from those of the House Wren, to which it is nearly allied. I hope to be more famihar with the Wood Wren be- fore my labours are completed, in which case I shall not fail to make you acquainted with the result of my observations.

The following table exhibits a view of the places of resort of our dif- ferent Wrens, which are arranged according to their comparative fre- quency.

1. The Carolina Wren is extremely abundant in all the Southern States, and gradually diminishes in number as you approach the Middle Districts, none I believe being ever seen farther east than the State of New