LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN 89 



"WRENS : FAMILY TROGLODYTIDiE 



Five species of Wren occur in New York and New Eng- 

 land. The two Marsh Wrens are found only in extensive 

 marshes or wet grassy meadows. The Great Carolina Wren 

 is not regularly found north of southern Connecticut. The 

 House Wren, though local, is fairly common from Massa- 

 chusetts southward, and occurs here and there in northern 

 New England. The Winter Wren is a common summer re- 

 sident of the moist forests of northern New York and New 

 England, and occurs elsewhere as a migrant. W^rens are 

 noisy and active, but secretive birds, concealing themselves 

 in tall grass, brush heaps, or stone walls. They often cock 

 their tails over their backs. They are all rather small and 

 of a nearly uniform brown color. 



Long-billed Marsh Wren. Telmatodytes palustris 



5.20 



Ad. — Head blackish-brown, unstreaked; middle of back black- 

 ish, spotted with white; rest of back, wings, and tail brown; tail 

 barred with black ; line over eye white ; under parts white ; only the 

 sides washed with buff. 



Nest, globular, with the opening at the side ; made of grasses 

 or cat-tails, and fastened to the stalks of cat-tails or to the stems 

 of bushes. Eggs, chocolate-brown, spotted with darker brown at 

 the larger end. 



The Long-billed Marsh Wren is a common summer resi- 

 dent of the tidal marshes from Staten Island to eastern 

 Massachusetts. It is also common near the coast in exten- 

 sive cat-tail marshes along sluggish streams, as at Wayland, 

 Mass., but in the interior of New England it is rare or 

 absent, except along the valley of the Connecticut River, 

 where it occurs as far north as Springfield. The Wrens 



