160 



NORTTT AMERTCAX BIRDS. 



Proviuces, and from the iVtlaiitic to tlie Upper Missouri. It is nowhere 

 aliunilant, and in many large portions of intervening territory has never 

 been found. 



It is exclusively an inhabitant of low, fresh-water marshes, open swamps, 



and meadows, is never found on high 



Cistothorvs paluatris. 



ground, and is very shy and difficult of 

 a]iproach. It makes its first appearance 

 in Massachusetts early in May, and leaves 

 early in September. In winter it has 

 been found in all the (lulf States, from 

 Florida to Texas. 



According to Nuttall, this Wren has a 

 lively and quaint song, delivered ear- 

 nestly and as if in haste, and at short 

 intervals, either from a tult of sedge or 

 ti-om a low bush on the edge of a marsh. 

 When ap]iroached, the song becomes 

 harsher and moi-e hurried, and rises 

 into an angry and petulant cry. In the early part of the season the male is 

 quite lively and musical. These Wrens spend their lime chiefly in the long, 

 rank grass of the swamps and meadows searching foi' insects, their favorite 

 food. 



Their nest is constructed in llic midst (if a tussock of coarse high grass, 

 the tops of which are ingeniously interwoven into a coarse and strong cover- 

 ing, spherical in shape and closed on every side, except one small aperture 

 l(!ft for an entrance. The strong wiry grass of the tussock is also interwo\en 

 with liner materials, making the whole impervious to the weather. The 

 iinu^' nest is composed of grasses and finer sedges, and lined with soft, vege- 

 table down. The eggs are niiu; in niuuber, pure white, and rather small for 

 the bird. They are exceedingly delicate and fragile, more so tlian is usual 

 even in the eggs of Humming-Birds. They are of an oval slia])e, and measure 

 .60 by .45 of an inch. 



Mr. Nuttall conjectured that- occasionally two females occupied the same 

 nest, and states that he has known the male bird to liu.sy itself in construct- 

 ing several nests, not more than one of which woidd be used. As these birds 

 rear a second brood, it is probable that these nests are built from an in- 

 stinctive desire to have a new one in leadincss for the second brood. This 

 peculiarity has been noticed in other Wi-ens, where the female sometimes 

 takes possession of the new abode, lays and sits upon her second set of eggs 

 before her first brood are ready to ily, which are left to the elwrge of her 

 mate. 



jNIr. Audubon fnund tliis Wren breeding in Texas. Dr. Trudeau met them 

 on the marshes of the Delaware l.'ivei', and their nest and eggs have been 

 sent to us from the Koskonong marshes of Wisconsin. It has also been found 



