Red-eyed vireo 

 Black-capped chickadee 

 Northern waterthrush 

 House wren 

 Ovenbird 



Downy woodpecker 

 Eastern wood pewee 

 Tufted titmouse 

 White-breasted nuthatch 

 Blue jay 



sects, earthworms, or other animal matter that they 

 catch on land (Noble 1931). 



Reptiles are terrestrial. Desert reptiles never go 

 to water. Painted, geographic, and snapping turtles 

 bask in the sun on the shore or on protruding logs, 

 but quickly plunge into the water to escape danger, 

 to cool ofif, or to feed. The alligator and musk and 



soft-shelled turtles spend nearly all their time in 

 water. The soft-shelled turtle is able to utilize dis- 

 solved o.xygen in the water and hence has evolved 

 special readaptation to water. Like other turtles, 

 however, they lay their eggs on land, placing them 

 in holes excavated in sand, loose soil, muck, or de- 

 caying stumps or logs. Water snakes give birth to 

 living young that enter the water immediately. Water 

 snakes feed on insects, small fish and amphibians, 

 crayfish, or whatever other animal food they can find. 

 The food of turtles is similar to that of snakes ; some 

 species are also scavengers. The cottonmouth moc- 

 casin is a prominent poisonous snake in southern 

 marshes and swamps. The massasauga rattlesnake 

 occurs in wet areas to the north. 



Birds 



Bird populations are high, and the pond-marsh, 

 swamp shrub or forest-edge, and forest communities 

 are especially clearly defined (Table 7-4). There is 

 an abundance of nest-sites and food, but the aquatic 

 and terrestrial species exploit different niches to 

 avoid competition as much as possible. The aquatic 

 species feed in all stages of the plant sere, beginning 

 with the open water, but nest for the most part in the 

 emergent vegetation (Beecher 1942). Herons com- 

 monly feed in shallow water but nest in tree-top col- 

 onies. Grebes, cormorants, and terns feed on fish in 

 the open water ; the herons, egrets, and bitterns get 

 fish in water shallow enough for them to wade in ; 

 cranes and coots are omnivorous ; ibis, stilts, snipe, 

 and rails probe around in the mud for invertebrates ; 

 avocets sweep their curved bills back and forth 

 through the water, catching aquatic insects ; gallinules 

 eat seeds, roots, and soft parts of succulent plants as 

 well as some invertebrates ; most ducks feed on sub- 

 merged and floating vegetation and attached animal 

 organisms ; song birds inhabiting the marsh feed 

 chiefly on insects captured outside the water. 



Mammals 



One of the most characteristic mammals of the 

 marsh is the muskrat. A well-developed marsh may 

 contain one of their haycock-shaped lodges on each 

 acre (2.5 per hectare), with perhaps five animals per 

 lodge during the autumn. The diet of the muskrat is 

 largely the leaves and roots of marsh vegetation, al- 

 tiiough they also feed to some extent on crayfish, 

 clams, snails, and sluggish fish. Overpopulations of 

 two or three lodges per acre (5.0 to 7.5 per hectare) 

 may lead to "eat-outs" or local destruction of the 

 marsh vegetation (Dozier 1953). 



The mink is probably the most common mam- 



86 



Habitats, communities, succession 



