The CAROLINA WREN (_Thryothorus Ludovicianus_), according to the Prince
von Wied, is five inches long and seven broad; the wing measures two
inches and one-sixth, and the tail an inch and three-quarters. The
plumage of the upper portion of the body is reddish brown, marked with
undulating lines of a deeper hue; the chin and throat are white, the
rest of the lower parts yellowish red, with black markings on the sides;
a stripe over the eyes is white. The quills are blackish brown on the
inner, and striped on the outer web. The feathers of the wing-covers are
tipped with white. The eye is greyish brown; the upper mandible light
grey, the lower one lead-colour, tipped with pale brown. This species is
the largest and most numerous of all the many species of Wrens inhabiting
North America; it is met with alike in mountain tracts, low-lying
regions, dense forests, or even districts near the abodes of man.
"The quickness of the motions of this little bird," says Audubon, "is
fully equal to that of the mouse. Like the latter, it appears and is out
of sight in a moment; peeps into a crevice, passes rapidly through it,
and shows itself at a different place in the next instant. When satiated
with food, or fatigued with these multiplied exertions, the little fellow
stops, droops its tail, and sings with great energy a short ditty,
something resembling the words '_Come to me, Come to me_,' repeated
several times in quick succession, so loud, and yet so mellow, that it is
always agreeable to listen to its music. During spring these notes are
heard from all parts of the plantations, the damp woods, the swamps, the
sides of creeks and rivers, as well as from the barns, the stables, and
the piles of wood within a few yards of the house. I frequently heard one
of these Wrens singing from the roof of an abandoned flat boat fastened
to the shore, a short distance below the city of New Orleans. When its
song was finished, the bird went on creeping from one board to another,
thrust itself through an auger-hole, entered the boat's side at one place
and peeped out at another, catching numerous spiders and other insects
all the while. It sometimes ascends to the higher branches of a tree of
moderate size, by climbing along a grape-vine, searching diligently among
the leaves and in the chinks of the bark, alighting sideways against the
trunk, and conducting itself like a true Creeper."
The vocal capabilities of the Carolina Wren would appear to be
respectable, and it can imitate with tolerable accuracy the notes of
other birds. "Amidst its imitations and variations," says Nuttall,
"which seem almost endless, and lead the stranger to imagine himself,
even in the depth of winter, surrounded by all the quaint choristers
of the summer, there is still with our capricious and tuneful mimic a
favourite theme, more constantly and regularly repeated than the rest.
This was also the first sound that I heard from him, delivered with great
spirit, though in the dreary month of January. This sweet and melodious
ditty--_tsee-toot, tsee-toot, tsee-toot_, and sometimes _tsee-toot,
tsee-toot, seet_, was usually uttered in a somewhat plaintive or tender
strain, varied at each repetition with the most delightful and delicate
tones, of which no conception can be formed without experience. That
this song has a sentimental air may be conceived from its interpretation
by the youths of the country, who pretend to hear it say '_Swĕet-heart,
swĕet-heart, sweet_!' Nor is the illusion more than the natural truth,
for usually this affectionate ditty is answered by its mate, sometimes in
the same note, at others in a different call. In most cases it will be
remarked that the phrases of our songster are uttered in threes; by this
means it will generally be practicable to distinguish its performance
from that of other birds, and particularly from the Cardinal Grosbeak,
whose expressions it often closely imitates, both in power and delivery.
I shall never, I believe, forget the soothing satisfaction and amusement
I derived from this little constant and unwearied minstrel, my sole
vocal companion throughout many weary miles of a vast, desolate, and
otherwise cheerless wilderness. Yet, with all his readiness to amuse by
his Protean song--the epitome of all he had ever heard or recollected--he
was still studious of concealment, keeping busily engaged near the
ground, or in low thickets, in quest of his food; and when he mounted a
log or brush-pile, which he had just examined, his colour, so similar to
the fallen leaves and wintry livery of Nature, often prevented me from
gaining a glimpse of the wonderful and interesting mimic."
"The nest of the Carolina Wren," says Audubon, "is usually placed in a
hole of some low, decayed tree, or in a fence stake, sometimes even in
the stable, barn, or coach-house, should it there find a place suitable
for its reception. I have found some not more than two feet from the
ground in the stump of a tree that had long before been felled by the
axe. The materials employed in its construction are hay, grasses, leaves,
feathers, and horsehair, or the dry fibres of the Spanish moss; the
feathers, hair, or moss, form the lining, the coarse materials the outer
parts. When the hole is sufficiently large, the nest is not unfrequently
five or six inches in depth, although only just wide enough to admit one
of the birds at a time. The number of eggs is from five to eight. They
are of a broad oval form, greyish white, sprinkled with reddish brown.
Whilst at Oakley, the residence of my friend James Perrie, Esq., near
Bagon, Jura, I discovered that one of these birds was in the habit of
roosting in a Wood Thrush's nest, that was placed on a low horizontal
branch, and had been filled with leaves that had fallen during the
autumn. It was in the habit of thrusting its body beneath the leaves,
and, I doubt not, found the place very comfortable. They usually raise
two, sometimes three broods in a season. The young soon come out from
the nest, and, in a few days after, creep and hop about with as much
nimbleness as the old ones. Their plumage undergoes no change, merely
becoming firmer in the colouring."