98 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



*' A. Cistothorus. Bill half length of head. No white superciliary streak. 

 Head and rump and back streaked with white. Tail dusky, barred 

 with brown c. stellaris. 



" B. Telmatodytes. Bill length of head. A white superciliary stripe. Back 

 alone streaked with white. Tail feathers black, barred with whitish. 



C. palastrls." 

 (Hist. N. Am. .) 



Subgenus Cistothorus Cabanis. 

 Cistothorus stellaris (Licht ) 



SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



Troglodytes stellaris "LICHT." NAUM. Vog. Deutschl. iii, 1823,724. 



Cistothorus stellnris CAB. Mus. Hein. i, 1S5'\ 77. BAIRD, B. N. Am. 1858, 365; Gat. N. Am. 



B. 1859, No. 269; Review. 1864, 1J6. COUES. Key, 1872, 88; Check List. 1873, No. 52; 2d 



ed. 1832. No. 81; B. N. W. 1874, 30: B. Col. Val. 18/8. 180. -B. B. R. Hist. N. Am. B. i. 



1874, 159, pi. 9, fig. 7. RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881. No. 08. 

 Troglodytes brevirostris NUTT. Man. i, 1832, 426; 2d ed. i, 1810, 493. AUD. Orn. Biog. ii, 



1834, 427; Synop. 1839, 77: B. Am. ii, 1841, 138, pi. 124. 



HAB. Eastern United States, north to Massachusetts and Manitoba, west to the Great 

 Plains and even to Utah; winters in the Southern States. 



"Sp. CHAK. Bill very short, scarcely half the length of the head. Wing and tail about 

 equal. Hinder part of the crown and the scapular and interscapular region of the back 

 and rump almost black, streaked with white. Tail dusky, the feathers barred throughout 

 with brown (the color grayish on the under surface). Beneath white, the sides, upper 

 part of breast, and under tail-coverts reddish brown. Length, 4.50; wing, 1.75; tail, 1.75." 

 (Hist. N. Am. B.} 



"Autumnal plumage: young male. Above similar to adult, but darker, especially on 

 nape and pileum. Throat'and abdomen light buff; breast, sides, anal region, and crissum 

 rusty-brown, paler and with white tippings to the feathers anteriorly. From a specimen 

 in my collection shot at Cambridge, Mass., September 19, 1870." (BEEWSTER, Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, January, 1878, 22.) 



The Short- billed Marsh Wren occurs throughout Illinois, but only 

 in certain favored localities. Mr. Nelson, in his catalogue of the 

 birds of Cook and adjoining counties (p. 94), writes of it as follows : 



"Bather common summer resident and generally distributed in 

 suitable places. Breeds last of May. I think the distribution of 

 this species is much more general than is supposed. Owing to the 

 character of the locality in which they are found, and to their shy- 

 ness, the chances are that they will be overlooked. Before I learned 

 their habits I passed repeatedly through places where I afterwards 

 found they were quite common." 



Its favorite resorts are said to be wet meadows, where the grass 

 and sedges grow tall and rank, and in prairie sloughs. The nest, 

 like that of its long-billed relative (C. palustns), is fastened to up- 



