Comparatively few of his admirers, however, hear the exquisite notes of this little brown wood-sprite, for after the nesting season is over he finds little to call them forth during the bleak, snowy winter months, when in the Middle and Southern States he may properly be called a neighbor. Sharp hunger, rather than natural boldness, drives him near the homes of men, where he appears just as the house wren departs for the South. With a forced confidence in man that is almost pathetic in a bird that loves the forest as he does, he picks up whatever lies about the house or barn in the shape of food—crumbs from the kitchen door, a morsel from the dog’s plate, a little seed in the barn-yard, happily rewarded if he can find a spider lurking in some sheltered place to give a flavor to the unrelished grain. Now he becomes almost tame, but we feel it is only because he must be.

The spot that decided preference leads him to, either winter or summer, is beside a bubbling spring. In the moss that grows near it the nest is placed in early summer, nearly always roofed over and entered from the side, in true wren-fashion; and as the young fledglings emerge from the creamy-white eggs, almost the first lesson they receive from their devoted little parents is in the fine art of bathing. Even in winter weather, when the wren has to stand on a rim of ice, he will duck and splash his diminutive body. It is recorded of a certain little individual that he was wont to dive through the icy water on a December day. Evidently the wrens, as a family, are not far removed in the evolutionary scale from true water-birds.

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LONG-BILLED MARSH WRENS.

Life-size.

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Long-billed Marsh Wren (Cistotborus palustris) Wren family Length—4.5 to 5.2 inches. Actually a little smaller than the English sparrow. Apparently half the size. Male and Female—Brown above, with white line over the eye, and the back irregularly and faintly streaked with white.

Wings and tail barred with darker cinnamon-brown. Underneath white. Sides dusky. Tail long and often carried Range—Unitederect. Bill Statesextra longand southernand slender.British America. Migrations—May. September. Summer resident.

Sometimes when you are gathering cat-tails in the river marshes an alert, nervous little brown bird rises startled from the rushes and tries to elude you as with short, jerky flight it goes deeper and deeper into the marsh, where even the rubber boot may not follow. It closely resembles two other birds found in such a place, the swamp sparrow and the short-billed marsh wren; but you may know by its long, slender bill that it is not the latter, and by the absence of a bright bay crown that it is not the shyest of the sparrows.

These marsh wrens appear to be especially partial to running water; their homes are not very far from brooks and rivers, preferably those that are affected in their rise and flow by the tides. They build in colonies, and might be called inveterate singers, for no single bird is often permitted to finish his bubbling song without half the colony joining in a chorus.

Still another characteristic of this particularly interesting bird is its unique architectural effects produced with coarse grasses woven into globular form and suspended in the reeds. Sometimes adapting its nest to the building material at hand, it weaves it of grasses and twigs, and suspends it from the limb of a bush or tree overhanging the water, where it swings like an oriole’s. The entrance to the nest is invariably on the side.

More devoted homebodies than these little wrens are not among the feathered tribe. Once let the hand of man desecrate their nest, even before the tiny speckled eggs are deposited in it, and off go the birds to a more inaccessible place, where they can enjoy their home unmolested. Thus three or four nests may be made in a summer. "9

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

Short-billed Marsh Wren (Cistothorus stellaris) Wren family Length—4 to 5 inches. Actually about one-third smaller than the

English sparrow, but apparently only half its size. Male and Female—Brown above, faintly streaked with white, black, and buff. Wings and tail barred with same. Underneath white, with buff and rusty tinges on throat and breast.

Short bill. Range—North America, from Manitoba southward in winter to

Gulf of Mexico. Most common in north temperate latitudes. Migrations—Early May. Late September.

Where red-winged blackbirds like to congregate in oozy pastures or near boggy woods, the little short-billed wren may more often be heard than seen, for he is more shy, if possible, than his long-billed cousin, and will dive down into the sedges at your approach, very much as a duck disappears under water. But if you see him at all, it is usually while swaying to and fro as he clings to some tall stalk of grass, keeping his balance by the nervous, jerky tail motions characteristic of all the wrens, and singing with all his might. Oftentimes his tail reaches backward almost to his head in a most exaggerated wren-fashion.

Samuels explains the peculiar habit both the long-billed and the short-billed marsh wrens have of building several nests in one season, by the theory that they are made to protect the sitting female, for it is noticed that the male bird always lures a visitor to an empty nest, and if this does not satisfy his curiosity, to another one, to prove conclusively that he has no family in prospect. Wild rice is an ideal nesting place for a colony of these little marsh wrens. The home is made of sedge grasses, softly lined with the softer meadow grass or plant-down, and placed in a tussock of tall grass, or even upon the ground. The entrance is on the side. But while fond of moist places, both for a home and feeding ground, it will be noticed that these wrens have no special fondness for running water, so dear to their long-billed relatives. Another distinction is that the eggs of this species, instead of being so densely speckled as to look brown, are pure white. 120

BROWN THRASHER.

7/10 Life-size.

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

Brown Thrasher (Harporhyncbus rufusj Thrasher and Mocking-bird family Called also: BROWN THRUSH; GROUND THRUSH; RED

THRUSH ; BROWN MOCKING-BIRD ; FRENCH MOCK-

ING-BIRD; MAVIS

Length— n to ii. 5 inches. Fully an inch longer than the robin. Male—Rusty red-brown or rufous above; darkest on wings, which have two short whitish bands. Underneath white, heavily streaked (except on throat) with dark-brown, arrow-shaped spots. Tail very long. Yellow eyes. Bill long and curved Female—Palerat tip. than male. Range—United States to Rockies. Nests from Gulf States to

Manitoba and Montreal. Winters south of Virginia. Migrations—Late April. October. Common summer resident.

“ There’s a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; He is singing to me! He is singing to me! And what does he say, little girl, little boy? ‘ Oh, the world’s running over with joy! ’ ”

The hackneyed poem beginning with this stanza that delighted our nursery days, has left in our minds a fairly correct impression of the bird. He still proves to be one of the perennially joyous singers, like a true cousin of the wrens, and when we study him afield, he appears to give his whole attention to his song with a self-consciousness that is rather amusing than the reverse. “What musician wouldn’t be conscious of his own powers,” he seems to challenge us, “if he possessed such a gift?” Seated on a conspicuous perch, as if inviting attention to his performance, with uplifted head and drooping tail he repeats the one exultant, dashing air to which his repertoire is limited, without waiting for an encore. Much practice has given the notes a brilliancy of execution to be compared only with the mockingbird’s; but in spite of the name “ferruginous mocking-bird” that Audubon gave him, he does not seem to have the faculty of imitating other birds’ songs. Thoreau says the Massachusetts farmers, when planting their seed, always think they hear the thrasher say, “ Drop it, drop it—cover it up, cover it up— pull it up, pull it up, pull it up.”

121

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

One of the shatterings of childish impressions that age too often brings is When we learn by the books that our “merry brown thrush ” is no thrush at all, but a thrasher—first cousin to the wrens, in spite of his speckled breast, large size, and certain thrush-like instincts, such as never singing near the nest and shunning mankind in the nesting season, to mention only two. Certainly his bold, swinging flight and habit of hopping and running over the ground would seem to indicate that he is not very far removed from the true thrushes. But he has one undeniable wren-like trait, that of twitching, wagging, and thrashing his long tail about to help express his emotions. It swings like a pendulum as he rests on a branch, and thrashes about in a most ludicrous way as he is feeding on the ground upon the worms, insects, and fruit that constitute his diet.

Before the fatal multiplication of cats, and in unfrequented, sandy locations still, the thrasher builds her nest upon the ground, thus earning the name “ground thrush” that is often given her but with dearly paid-for wisdom she now most frequently selects a low shrub or tree to cradle the two broods that all too early in the summer effectually silence the father’s delightful song.

Wilson’s Thrush (Turdus fuscescens) Thrush family Called also: VEERY; TAWNY THRUSH Length— to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female—Uniform olive-brown, with a tawny cast above.

Centre of the throat white, with cream-buff on sides of throat and upper part of breast, which is lightly spotted with wedge-shaped, brown points. Underneath white, or with a faint grayish tinge. Range—United States, westward to plains.Migrations—May. October. Summer resident.

To many of us the veery, as they call the Wilson’s thrush in New England, is merely a voice, a sylvan mystery, reflecting the sweetness and wildness of the forest, a vocal “ will-o’-the-wisp ” that, after enticing us deeper and deeper into the woods, where we sink into the spongy moss of its damp retreats and become 122

WOOD THRUSH.

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Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

entangled in the wild grape-vines twined about the saplings and underbrush, still sings to us from unapproachable tangles. Plainly, if we want to see the bird, we must let it seek us out on the fallen log where we have sunk exhausted in the chase.

Presently a brown bird scuds through the fern. It is a thrush, you guess in a minute, from its slender, graceful body. At first you notice no speckles on its breast, but as it comes nearer, obscure arrow-heads are visible—not heavy, heart-shaped spots such as plentifully speckle the larger wood thrush or the smaller hermit. It is the smallest of the three commoner thrushes, and it lacks the ring about the eye that both the others have. Shy and elusive, it slips away again in a most unfriendly fashion, and is lost in the wet tangle before you have become acquainted. You determine, however, before you leave the log, to cultivate the acquaintance of this bird the next spring, when, before it mates and retreats to the forest, it comes boldly into the gardens and scratches about in the dry leaves on the ground for the lurking insects beneath. Miss Florence Merriam tells of having drawn a number of veeries about her by imitating their call-note, which is a whistled wheew, wboit, very easy to counterfeit when once heard. “ Taweel-ah, taweel-ah, twil-ab, twil-ab!” Professor Ridgeway interprets their song, that descends in a Succession of trills without break or pause; but no words can possibly convey an idea of the quality of the music. The veery, that never claims an audience, sings at night also, and its weird, sweet strains floating through the woods at dusk, thrill one like the mysterious voice of a disembodied spirit.

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