SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN 271 



on the swaying top of a tall sedge or reed, singing to his hidden mate. 

 If we approach for a closer look he dives into the nearest and thickest 

 cover, and we may not see him again. His cousin, the longbill, might 

 be prompted by curiosity to come sneaking through the cover of the 

 cattails to have a sly look at us ; but not so the little shortbill ; his one 

 glimpse was enough and he was interested only in keeping out of sight, 

 and so off he goes, creeping mouselike through the dense grass. His 

 mate is even more shy about her nest; only once have I succeeded in 

 surprising her at home ; then she dove like a flash into the grass and 

 disappeared, but I heard her scolding notes as she moved about in the 

 surrounding cover. Mr. Mousley (1934) succeeded in photogTaphing 

 the female at the nest, to which she returned within 20 minutes after he 

 had beaten down the grasses in front of the nest and placed his camera 

 only about 2 feet away. He writes : "As showing her apparent disre- 

 gard of the camera she on one occasion perched on a leg of the tripod. 

 * * * At times it was only the song of the male that gave me any 

 indication that his partner was near the nest, whilst at others I was 

 more fortunate in observing her approach, as she flew just above the top 

 of the herbage suddenly flopping down into it at some distance from 

 the nest, when all trace of her would be lost until the actions of the 

 young made me aware that she had arrived in the near vicinity of the 

 nest, but where she would actually appear was another matter." 



If the male is flushed in the open marsh, which is not a difficult 

 matter, he goes flying off close to the tops of the sedges with a straight, 

 even, slow flight, looking like a tiny ball of feathers propelled with 

 rapid beats of his little wings, and then suddenly drops down into the 

 cover. 



Voice. — Over 40 years ago I wrote in my notes that the song of the 

 short-billed marsh wren is a chattering trill, resembling the sound made 

 by striking two sticks very rapidly together ; it suggests the song of the 

 longbill but is fainter and lacks the musical, bubbling notes of the 

 latter's song. Some others have suggested that the song sounds like 

 striking small pebbles together or rattling a bag of marbles, not bad 

 descriptions. 



The song has been expressed in syllables, more or less differently by 

 various observers. Ora W. Knight (1908) writes the full-length 

 characteristic song as "chip — chip — chip — chip, chip-chip-chip-chir- 

 r-r-r-r-r" ; it reminded him of the song of the pallid wren tit ; though 

 "different in timbre, * * * harsh and lacking the bell like reso- 

 nance of the Wren Tit's song it was uttered with the same accentuation 

 and syllaballization." Ernest T. Seton (1890) writes the same song as 



^^chap chap — chap-chap, chap, chap, chap p-p-p-r-r-r^ In both of 



these cases the first four syllables are given deliberately, with pauses 

 between them and on a lower key than the rest of the song, which runs 

 off in a rapid, diminuendo trill. 



