SWAMP COMMUNITIES 



171 



weeds and trash similarly situated; the coot is less aquatic. The yellow- 

 head blackbird (Fig. 117), mallard, pintail, American bittern, the least 

 bittern (Fig. 118), the Florida gallinule (Fig. 119), the long-billed marsh 

 wren, and sometimes the Virginia, sora, and king rails, and the red- 

 winged blackbird nest in such situations. These birds build nests, 

 either woven from grasses or in the form of crude piles of dead vegetation, 

 each species having its characteristic method. 



The muskrat breeds here and builds a nest from bulrushes (Fig. 82, 



Permanent Water Marsh and Its Inhabitants 



Fig. 118. — Nest of the least bittern (Ardetta exilis Gmel.) in a marsh at Nipper- 

 sink Lake. Photo by T. C. Stephens. 



Fig. 119. — Nest of the Florida gallinule {Gallinula galeata Licht) in a marsh at 

 Nippersink Lake. Photo by T. C. Stephens. 



p. 131). The mink likewise is found in this kind of situation (22, 142, 

 143). The grassy outer edges of such ponds are the favorite breeding- 

 places of frogs (Rana clamata) which stick their eggs to grass. Points 

 about such lakes, especially where there are shrubs and willows, are the 

 favorite haunts of the bullfrog {Rana catesbeiana Shaw) (Fig. 117). 



b) Spring-fed marsh sub-formations (Figs. 120-22) (Stations 10, 51). — 

 These are very similar to the marshes which adjoin bodies of water, 



