THRASHERS AND WRENS 167 



Interesting as the Winter Wren is in plumage 

 and habits, it is as a singer that he is known to 

 fame, for his song is one of the great delights 

 that comes to one in the wilderness. It is wild, 

 rich, tinkling, a mountain rill. Thoreau says of 

 one he heard in the Franconia Notch: "It was 

 surprising for its steady and uninterrupted 

 flow, for when one stopped, another took up 

 the strain. It reminded me of a fine, corkscrew 

 stream, issuing with incessant lisping tinkle 

 from a cork, flowing rapidly; and I said he had 

 pulled out the sp'le and left it running. That 

 was the rhythm, but with a sharper tinkle, of 

 course. " I sometimes hear him called the 

 "fiddlin' bird," and think the name very appro- 

 priate. They nest from the Northern States 

 northward, and along the Alleghenies, wintering 

 from New England to Florida. 



Long-billed Marsh Wren. In swamps that 

 are overgrown with reeds, and in the cat-tails 

 that border marsh, lake and stream, you will 

 find in the summertime a little Wren, whose 

 acquaintance you will not make unless you 

 visit his haunts, for he seldom ventures forth 

 except during migration. This is the Long- 

 billed Marsh Wren, as much a part of the 

 marsh he inhabits as the reeds and rushes them- 

 selves. When you undertake to pay him a 

 friendly visit, the chances are that you will be 

 greeted by harsh ''cacks'^ that indicate ill humor 

 at being disturbed. But if you compose your- 

 self in patience for a time, the ill temper dis- 

 appears, and you may hear his quaint song, a 

 bubbling, tremulous little melody, that reminds 



