ray, dusted over with pepper-and-salt dots on the back,
and his bill was very straight and sharp--almost an inch long, it
looked. This was a Rock Wren."

"He must have had a nest somewhere in those rocks," said Rap. "Wrens
most always have nests near where they sing."

"No doubt he had, as it was the nesting season--June," answered the
Doctor; "but it was growing late in the day, we had a long scramble down
the mountain before us, and could not wait to hunt for it. Most likely,
too, if we had found the very place where it was, we should not have
been able to see it, for probably it was tucked away too far in a
crooked passage under a shelving rock.

"When we were half-way down the mountain we passed a miner's cabin. He
was at home, and we sat down on a bench by the door to rest. Thinking he
might know about the nest of the Rock Wren,--for an old miner knows a
great many things he never thinks of making a book about,--I asked him
if there were any Wrens around there.

"'Wall, I should smile, stranger! Lots on 'em--more'n one kind,
too--but mostly not the reg'lar kind they have where you tenderfoots
live--bigger, and pickeder in front, and make more fuss. When they fust
come, 'long about May, or nigh onter June, they act kinder shy like, but
they get uster to yer, soon's they find nobody ain't goin' to bother
with 'em, and stay around altogether, mostly in the rocks. Last y'ar
there was two on 'em come nigh chinking up this shebang with trash they
hauled in for a nest, afore they got it fixed to suit 'em, and had it
chuck full o' speckled eggs. Then one of these yere blamed pack-rats
tore it all up, and they had to start in to hauling more trash.'

"So you see, children, this miner knew a Rock Wren--do you know a Jenny
Wren?"

The Rock Wren

Length nearly six inches.

Back gray, with fine black-and-white dots.

Under parts no particular color.

Some of the tail-feathers with black bars and cinnamon-brown tips.

A Citizen of the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean.

A Ground Gleaner

THE HOUSE WREN

"We all know Jenny Wren!" cried the children. "The Farm is full of
Jennies and Johnnies!"

"They build in bird-boxes," said Dodo.

"And in old tin cans, and water pots, and anything they find," said Rap.

"And Jenny does most of the work; if the can is very large she fills it
full of sticks until there is only a cosy little corner left for the
nest, for she is a very neat bird,"