The alchemy which transforms spiders into humming birds performs almost as remarkable a miracle in transmuting a diet of insects into this restless atom of feathered vitality.
Anyone who believes birds are not the greatest factor in keeping insects from overrunning this earth will change his opinion after watching how Wrens spend a day. From dawn to dusk they follow Diana's trail with a whole-hearted persistency which results in hexopoda mortality unequaled by other birds except, possibly, the warblers. The slaughter reaches its peak as the young approach maturity tho even in busy hours of the final onslaught they take "time out" to voice their clear, strong song that is audible, under favorable atmospheric conditions, two thousand feet away!
Vocal impulse is so strong that they frequently try to sing with a billful of bugs and even under this handicap the muted notes are not unmusical.
NEST: placed anywhere — with Wren whimsicality; constructed of small twigs, bark strips, grass and spiders' webs, lined with fine grasses or feathers.
EGGS: 4 to 7, dull white, specked with chestnut at large end, sometimes wreathed.
Eastern central United States. Southeastern Nebraska, northern Illinois, southern Michigan, south-central Pennsylvania, central Alabama, along Alleghenian Range to northern South Carolina. Winters from near the northern limit of its range south to Gulf coast and Florida.
California, west of Sierra Nevada, south to Santa Cruz Island.
Western Texas to southeastern California and from south Nevada, Utah and Colorado south to Mexican tablelands.
A fine, round topped 60–80 foot tree growing on Mt. Shasta slopes south along the coast of California to Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands. A common shrub on arid parts of San Bernardino, San Jacinto and Cuyamaca Mountains. Arborescent in coastal central California. Rare.