420 NOTES ON THE 



dusky and whitish, and spotted with white more anteriorly; 

 outer web of primaries simiarly spotted with pale brownish- 

 white. An indistinct pale line over the eye. 



Length, 4; wing, 1.66; tail, 1.26 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



CISTOTHORUS STELL4RIS (Lichtenstein.) (724.) 

 SHORT BILLED MARSH WREN. 



The meadows and willow swamps to which the Marsh Wrens 

 at once resort upon their arrival, preclude the probabilities of 

 knowing just when that takes place, but from a comparison of 

 observations of several local observers it is not much removed 

 from the first of May. They are so exceedingly shy, and hide 

 in the reeds and grass so effectually that they are apparently 

 rare, yet from personal observations I cannot quite think they 

 are. When I have made special search for them I hare gen- 

 erally been unsuccessful, either from too great haste, or from 

 putting myself too directly in their way, but when entirely 

 alone and I have waited in complete ambush for some time, 

 I have generally been rewarded with the sight of several, and 

 the pleasure of obtaining one or two. I have found several 

 nests quite near each other, with eggs in by the 25th of May. 

 They are constructed in such a manner as to look like a loose 

 ball of grass hanging in a tussock of coarser grass or reeds, 

 about a foot above the ground. The whole is usually well 

 within a field of reeds or wild rice, where few persons would 

 be likely to go except to retrieve a duck, unless specially in 

 search of the nest. By the weaving of fine grasses ingeniously 

 in with the coarse, the exterior of the nest is compacted to im- 

 perviousness, while the inner nest is composed of fine grass, 

 and lined with soft down from the bark and blossoms of vege- 

 tables. The eggs, variously from six to ten, are pure white, 

 and exceedingly thin-shelled. The entrance to the nest is very 

 small and in some scarcely appreciable. They are widely dis- 

 tributed. 



Prof. Herrick found it breeding at Lake Shatek ' 'in consid- 

 erable numbers." 



Mr. Washburn, in his report to me of his explorations in the 

 Red river valley, says of the Short-billed Marsh Wren, it is 

 "common in the marshes throughout the valley; breeding in 

 colonies in the tall grass. A most interesting bird, as bold, 

 saucy and inquisitive as his cousin, the Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren. In a large marsh near Ada, I found a colony of these 



