438 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



time in quest of the insects, chiefly crustaceous, which, 

 with moths, constitute their principal food ; here unseen 

 they still sedulously utter their quaint warbling ; and tsliip 

 tship a day day day day, may, for about a month from 

 their arrival, be heard pleasantly echoing on a fine 

 morning from the borders of every low marsh and wet 

 meadow, provided with tussucks of sedge-grass, in which 

 they indispensably dwell, for a time engaged in the cares 

 and gratification of raising and providing for their young. 



The nest of the Short-Billed Marsh-Wren is made 

 wholly of dry, or partly green sedge, bent usually from 

 the top of the grassy tuft in which the fabric is situated. 

 With much ingenuity and labor these simple materials 

 are loosely entwined together into a spherical form, with 

 a small and rather obscure entrance left in the side ; a 

 thin lining is sometimes added to the whole, of the linty 

 fibres of the silk weed, or some other similar material. 

 The eggs, pure white, and destitute of spots, are proba- 

 bly from 6 to 8. In a nest containing 7 eggs, there were 

 3 of them larger than the rest, and perfectly fresh, while 

 the 4 smaller were far advanced towards hatching ; from 

 this circumstance we may fairly infer that ^?ro different 

 individuals had laid in the same nest ; a circumstance 

 more common among wild birds than is generally imag- 

 ined. This is also the more remarkable, as the male of 

 this species, like many other Wrens, is much employed 

 in making nests, of which not more than one in three or 

 four are ever occupied by the females ! 



The summer limits of this species, confounded with 

 the ordinary Marsh-Wren, are yet unascertained ; and 

 it is singular to remark how near it approaches to an- 

 other species inhabiting the temperate parts of the south- 

 ern hemisphere in America, namely the Sylvia platen- 

 sis, figured and indicated by Buffbn. The description. 



