Dr. Witmer Stone writes of the song of the Carolina wren as follows: “His most characteristic song has been likened by Mr. Chapman to tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, and to whee-udle, whee-udle, whee-udle. Wilson wrote it sweet-william, sweet-william, sweet-william; and to Audubon it seemed to say come-to-me, come-to-me, come-to-me. It has variations recalling forms in the Cardinal’s song, and also that of the Tufted Titmouse; and the Wren after repeating one form for some time, often changes suddenly to another producing a rather startling effect, as if another bird has taken its place.”[35]
THE WINTER WREN
Wren Family—Troglodytidæ
Length: About 4 inches; the same size as the golden-crowned kinglet.
Male and Female: Similar in appearance to the house wren, but smaller and with a shorter tail; body brown, mostly barred with fine, black lines; light line over the eye; under parts darker than those of the house wren, with a buff wash across throat and breast.
Song: A very beautiful song, unusually loud for so small a bird. Those fortunate enough to hear it are extravagant in their praise. Mr. Eaton calls it the sweetest melody that he and his associates heard in the Adirondacks, excelling even the thrushes.
Habitat: Brush heaps, thickets in woods, along streams, and in wild rocky places.
Range: Breeds from southern Canada to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts, through the Alleghanies to North Carolina; winters from about its southern breeding limit to Texas and northern Florida.
Eaton says: “During the migration, this little wren is commonly observed about the shrubbery of our lawns, parks, and the edges of woods, when disturbed retreating to the recesses of some brush pile or under the damp edges of the stream bank. A few remain throughout the winter in western and central New York, and it is fairly common as a winter resident in the southeastern portion of the State, but in the principal breeding range of the Adirondacks and Catskills it is only a summer resident.”[36] It is a rather common winter visitor near Washington, and rare in New England.
DOWNY AND HAIRY WOODPECKERS
THE DOWNY WOODPECKER
Woodpecker Family—Picidæ
Length: A little over 6½ inches; the smallest of our woodpeckers.
General Appearance: A small black and white bird, with a white stripe extending down the middle of its back; a red patch on back of male’s head. The tail is used for a prop as the woodpecker climbs tree-trunks.
Male: Upper parts black and white; crown of head black with red patch at nape; two broad white stripes above and below eye; a broad white stripe down the center of back; wings spotted and barred with white; tail sharply pointed; the long tail-feathers, black; the short outer tail-feathers, white barred with black; bill long, strong, with a tuft of feathers at its base.
Female: Like male, except for the absence of a red patch on the head.
Notes: A call-note Peek-peek. A metallic Tut-tut-tut’-tut-tut-tut-tut might be considered the Downy’s song, but he belongs really to the group of songless birds. He beats loud tattoos on the boughs of trees, especially at mating time.
Flight: Labored, jerky, with a characteristic shutting of the wings against the sides.
Habitat: Tree-trunks in woods and orchards, and on lawns. The Downy is our most common woodpecker, and a permanent resident.
Range: Northern and central parts of eastern North America, from Alberta, Manitoba, and Ungava, south to eastern Nebraska, Kansas, the Potomac Valley, and in the mountains to North Carolina.
The SOUTHERN DOWNY WOODPECKER of the South Atlantic and Gulf States is smaller and browner than its northern relative.
The Downy Woodpecker is a member of a family of birds that has attracted man’s attention since the old days of superstition. Various myths have grown up around these birds; those of the American Indians are possibly the most interesting. Until recently, woodpeckers have been persecuted by the white man, because of their habit of pecking at trees which they were thought to kill. Many have been unjustly slain.
While one branch of the family, the Sapsuckers, have done a great deal of harm to forests where they breed, and other woodpeckers have done occasional damage, it is now known that they are invaluable as preservers of our trees. Entomologists and foresters consider them the greatest enemies known of spruce-bark beetles and sap-wood borers. As borers are found near the surface in living trees, the holes made by woodpeckers while extracting them soon heals and leaves little mark.