lyo TfiE Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



soon found containing eleven eggs of this species [Florida 

 GaUiiiulc). Nearby, a floating mass of dead rushes, the home of 

 a pair of pied billed grebes, allowing that they were sometimes at 

 home, held five eggs partially covered with rushes laid lengthwise 

 of the nest. 



Leaving the open water and coming to a more central portion 

 of the island, we were in the home of the long-billed marsh wren, 

 whose long tails were far more conspicuous than their bills. 

 When startled from the rushes they appeared to have some 

 definite destination in view and would solve the problem of getting 

 there by a direct mathematical flight on quickly whirring wings, 

 swerving neither to right nor left. Their globular nests were 

 everywhere, and resembled those of the field mouse but were very 

 strongly woven with rushes with a lining of feathery down from 

 the bullrushes. The entrance was a small round hole in the side, 

 which, in the first nest, I did not readily find, but later I obser\ed 

 that it invariably opened out between the rushes to which the nest 

 was fastened. The nesting sites were chiefly in clumps of last 

 year's rushes, when they were composed of dead material. Many 

 birds, however, fastened their nests to the long rank grasses 

 which covered the marshes where the water was only a few inches 

 deep. In the latter choice, green grasses were used in building, 

 the wrens thus blending the color of their homes with that of the 

 immediate surroundings. Often three or more nests appeared to 

 be the property of one pair of birds, those occupied being several 

 yards apart. The surplus nests are probably built with the pur- 

 pose of discouraging enemies, or possibly having cause to fear 

 rising of water, the birds are not satisfied with their first attempts. 



One nest that I found contained four eggs of a pure gloss\- 

 white, without a sign of coloration. They were slightly mal- 

 formed and almost globular in shape, measuring : -58 x 53 ; 

 •58x52; .59x54; .57x53, averaging .58x53, whilst an 

 average specimen of the normal o.^^ measures .66 x 49. In two 

 of these eggs incubation was somewhat advanced, whilst the other 

 two were almost fresh. It has been suggested to me that these 

 albino eggs might be the short-billed marsh wrens. The same 

 idea caused me tg ^tand in one and one-half feet of >vater tor a 



