The House Wren (Troglodytes Aedon, Vieill.), Volume 1, Plate 83

Painted in 1824.

The human world is never more present in Birds of America than in this affecting portrait of birds nesting in an old hat. Note, though, what the male bird that is perched, tail cocked, on top of the hat seems to think of humanity and its props-one rarely finds excrement so lovingly rendered as here. Audubon enlivens the image by placing the spider that is about to serve as a meal for the young birds right at the center of the composition. A third young wren has just fledged and is precariously holding on to the hat. Audubon’s essay about the House Wren extols the “familiarity” of a bird that seems to come so close to the world of humans while also admitting that one really knows nothing about some of its habits, including hibernation.

From John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography

From whence the House Wren comes, or to what parts it retires during winter, is more than I have been able to ascertain. Although it is extremely abundant in the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland, from the middle of April until the beginning of October, I have never been able to trace its motions, nor do I know of any naturalist in our own country, or indeed in any other, who has been more fortunate.

Its flight is short, generally low, and performed by a constant tremor of the wings, without any jerks of either the body or tail, although the latter is generally seen erect, unless when the bird is singing, when it is always depressed. When passing from one place to another, during the love-season, or whilst its mate is sitting, this sweet little bird flutters still more slowly through the air, singing all the while. It is sprightly, active, vigilant, and courageous. It delights in being near and about the gardens, orchards, and the habitations of man, and is frequently found in abundance in the very centre of our eastern cities, where many little boxes are put up against the walls of houses, or the trunks of trees, for its accommodation, as is also done in the country. In these it nestles and rears its young. It is seldom, however, at a loss for a breeding place, it being satisfied with any crevice or hole in the walls, the sill of a window, the eaves, the stable, the barn, or the upper side of a piece of timber, under the roof of a piazza. Now and then, its nest may be seen in the hollow branch of an apple tree. I knew of one in the pocket of an old broken-down carriage, and many in such an old hat as you see represented in the plate, which, if not already before you, I hope you will procure, and look at the little creatures anxiously peeping out or hanging to the side of the hat, to meet their mother, which has just arrived with a spider, whilst the male is on the lookout, ready to interpose should any intruder come near. The same nest is often resorted to for several successive years, merely receiving a little mending.