TULE WREN 263 



down of the lot." And Dawson and Bowles (1909) say that "in 

 a day Mr. Bowles found 53 nests, only 3 of which held eggs or 

 young. At least 2 broods are raised in a season." His brother, 

 Charles W. Bowles (1898), throws some light on the use that may 

 be made of these dummy nests : "In the spring of 1896 I found an 

 empty marsh wren's nest, and on passing by later in the day, saw 

 three nearly fledged young in it. There were also other nests near 

 by, with one or more young in each. It seems to me probable that 

 these duplicate nests are built, if the birds have a large family, for 

 the young to roost in, at least at night, when they are too large to 

 be all contained in one nest, but not yet able to take care of 

 themselves." 



Eggs. — The eggs of the tule wren are apparently no different from 

 those of other long-billed marsh wrens. The measurements of 40 eggs 

 average 16.3 by 12.8 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 17.6 by 13.0, 16.8 by 13.5, 15.5 by 12.8, and 16.0 by 12.0 milli- 

 meters. These eggs are all in the United States National Museum. 



Toimg. — Mrs. Wheelock (1904) writes: 



Twelve days are required for incubation, and even during this sliort period 

 the mother is not a close sitter. I have known her to leave the nest for 2 hours 

 in the middle of the day, trusting to the intense heat of the sun to perform her 

 task for her; and but for the thick, moist walls of the cradle, this same sun 

 would have been fatal to the bird life within the shells. 



As soon as the eggs hatched in the nest I was watching, I cut a slit in the top 

 of it to look at the young. They were naked, light pink in color, with tiny heads, 

 mere knobs for eyes and buds for wings ; each nestling measured 1 inch in length. 

 After this examination I tied up the slit, and before I was a yard away the 

 mother entered the nest again. Four days later the eyes of the young wrens had 

 begun to open, and looked like tiny slits, while a thin huffy down covered the 

 top of their heads and was scattered sparsely over their bodies. As in the young 

 of the long-billed marsh wrens, the ear openings were conspicuously large. Bill 

 and legs had changed from pink to light burnt-orange in color. They were fed 

 by regurgitation for the first 4 days and doubled in weight every 24 hours. When 

 a week old they were commencing to feather, and in 3 days more were nearly 

 ready to leave the nest. They were now fed on larvae of water insects, slugs, 

 and dragonflies, besides other insects, and meals were served four times an hour 

 during most of the day. 



These young wrens left the nest, when examined, at an age of 12 

 days ; they were able to glean some of their food but were fed by their 

 parents for 2 weeks longer. 



Food. — Only 53 stomachs of the California races of this species were 

 examined by Professor Beal (1907) , in which animal matter amounted 

 to 98 percent, and vegetable matter, consisting of a few seeds of sedges 

 and one of amaranth, amounted to 2 percent. "Beetles, wasps, ants, 

 bugs, caterpillars, and a few miscellaneous insects, with some spiders 

 and snails, make up the bill of fare." Bugs — assassin bugs, damsel 

 bugs, stink bugs, leafhoppers, and treehoppers — constituted the largest 



