NOTES OX NORTH CAROLINA BIRDS — WETMORE 509 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS GRISEUS (Brewster) : Worthington's Marsh Wren 



This race, in very gray color with entire absence of bright brown, 

 is so different from the other marsli wrens with which we are con- 

 cerned here as to be distinguished at a glance. An adult female 

 obtained a mile northeast of Southport on May 19 and four taken 

 on Smith Island opposite on May 21 all belong to this race. Evi- 

 dently here is the northern limit of this interesting bird. Attention 

 is called again to the fact that the one from Southport was taken a 

 mile south of the point where a skin of T. p. waynei was secured. 



Tlie details of the occurrence of the four marsh wrens here 

 listed furnish a fascinating problem for investigation by local 

 ornithologists. 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS lUACUS Ridpway: Prairie Marsh Wren 



I collected an adult male in a marsh a mile north of Engelhard 

 on October 14 in an area where T. p. waynei w^as abundant. This 

 migrant from the northern interior regions is brighter, lighter brown 

 on the back and flanks but is otherwise like typical palustris- There 

 is another specimen in the National Museum taken at Fort Macon, 

 N. C, in September 1869. 



CISTOTHORUS PLATENSIS STELLARIS (Naumann) : Short-billed Marsh Wren 



In fall this interesting wren was common locally in fresh-water 

 marshes in the coastal area, being found in company with the other 

 marsh wrens. At Engelhard on October 14 I noted that they were 

 as common as the long-billed marsh wrens. Specimens were taken 

 here on October 14, 16, and 24. Perrygo took four more 6 miles 

 northeast of Beaufort on November 15 and 18. Howell and Bur- 

 leigh ^ found half a dozen pairs of the short-billed marsh wren near 

 Pungo, Va., a short distance north of the North Carolina line from 

 May 17 to 20, 1932, and believed that they may have nested there. 

 Search for them should be made in the Currituck Sound area in 

 North Carolina in the nesting season. 



The smaller forms of Cistothorm of Central and South America 

 seem so closely allied to our familiar bird of the north that it appears 

 that Hellmayr -" is justified in considering all as geographic races of 

 one species. The oldest name for the group as a whole is platensis 

 of Latham so that the bird of the A. O. U. Check-list will become 

 Cwtothorus platensis stellaris. 



» Auk, 1934, p. 250. 



^ Field Mus. Nat. Hist, Zool. Ser., vol. l."?, pt. 7, Nov. IT), 10:?4, pp. 114-123. 



