House Wren

Probably all synonyms of "bubbling" have been used in descriptions of this fussy little midget's song. Like a cup of good coffee, tho, its monotony does not pall.

Such vocal ebulitions use energy rapidly so most of the daylight hours are given to reducing the insect population and transforming bugs into fuel within its high powered "tummie."

An exhibition of common sense and the utter absence of that commodity was curiously illustrated by a pair who selected a nesting site under the corrugated iron roof of my studio. The metal sheets were fastened to the porch plate and the lady decided to build beneath, using the inch opening as a doorway. With any number of convenient locations around she selected the most awkward. Plain dumbness.

There was no perch and of course all attempts to hit that narrow opening with a wing shot while carrying a twig resulted in a crash. The nursery beams jammed across the entrance and the airplane went into a tailspin.

"Here, let me show you. Always take the twig by the end. This way."

But the "straw" boss had no better luck. He could not get a toe hold ahead of his cargo. Another crash!

Conference called. Much chattering, churring and cussin'. Decision. One flew into the brush, returned with a wisp of grass, and popped neatly into the entrance. A short victory session with voluble paens, then both went to work with pliable material eliminating the ancestral platform of sticks. A clear case of straight reasoning.

In that six inch space between ceiling and roof the pair successfully raised two sets of youngsters, tho the temperature on warm days must have been well over 100 degrees. With their rollicking song, injurious bug reducing capacity and abounding life they are cheerful little fellows to have around the home but — there is a dark page in their life history. They are accused of destroying other birds' eggs. As one reputable observer after another adds damaging testimony, the black mark seems to be growing indelible.

For the first time in many years our HOUSE WRENS failed to appear in 1928 at my home in the Taconic Hills of Dutchess County, New York, and there are certainly more young birds about tho there were fewer parents housekeeping.

McAtee sums up the case in these fair, impartial words: The House Wren is worthy of approbation as any of our birds on the score of food habits. It has a better rank in this respect than most of the species whose eggs it occasionally destroys. Egg and nest destruction by the Wren is of local, not general, occurrence and the remedy should be local. It is simple to eliminate bird-houses that only Wrens can use — a measure to be applied in places where serious depredations have been noted; or to close temporarily, or reduce in number, houses that have proved bases for sporadic maurauding. Most problems in economic ornithology resolve into local irregularities of bird behavior and the wisest treatment in almost every case proves to be that adapted both in kind and degree to local needs.