LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN 235 



underparts with only very rarely the slightest traces of brown or biiffy 

 on the flanks. Differs from Heleodytes hrunneica'pillus a^finis Xantus 

 of the Cape region in lacking the strong buffy suffusion on the under- 

 parts and in having decidedly grayer (less reddish) upperparts. 

 Differs from Heleodytes hrmineicapillus hryanti Anthony of the San 

 Pedro Martir District in less buffy underparts, broader dorsal streak- 

 ing and from both afjlnis and hryanti in slightly smaller general size 

 and in decidedly smaller bill." 



The range he gives as "Middle portion of the peninsula of Lower 

 California, Mexico, from Dolores Bay (25°05' N.) north to Mesquital 

 (28°30' N.) and Punta Prieta (28°56' N.) . Specimens from the two 

 latter localities are variously mediate toward hryantV 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS PALUSTRIS (Wilson) 



LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN 



Plate 43 



HABITS 



The name given by Wilson for this species is now restricted to the 

 long-billed marsh wrens inhabiting a rather limited breeding range 

 on the Atlantic slope from Rhode Island to Virginia. Outram Bangs 

 (1902) has shown that the wrens from this region have the extensively 

 white lower surface, as so clearly depicted in Wilson's plate ; and he has 

 given a new name to the wrens of the interior of New England and 

 the Middle West. 



Julian G. Griggs spent a large portion of the summer of 1937 on 

 Jamestown Island in the James Eiver, Va., studying the habits of this 

 wren in some detail. He has kindly sent me his extensive unpublished 

 manuscript, giving the results of his observations, with the privilege of 

 quoting from it. On this island, "about 750 or nearly one-half of the 

 island's 1,G00 acres are marshland, which occupies much of the southern 

 part of the island. Five narrow, parallel ridges of wooded land extend 

 like so many fingers into the marshy area where this study was made. 

 A narrow, branching, brackish, tidal creek extends up into the morass. 

 Dominants in the marsh are Peltandra and marsh grass. The latter 

 dominates creek banks and other slightly raised portions, while the 

 former, because of its greater preference for water, occupies the lower 

 areas of the marsh. Here and there among the grass are groups and 

 individuals of marsh alder, groundsel-tree, knotweed, Kosteletzhya 

 virginica, rosemallow, and swamp milkweed. Cattails and longbills 

 are usually associated together, but this is not the case at Jamestown." 



In other portions of the range of this subspecies, this long-billed 

 marsh wren does, occasionally at least, nest in the narrowleaf cattails 

 {Typha augustifolia) , notably in coastal Connecticut and coastal Vir- 

 ginia. Chreswell J. Hunt (1904) , however, gives a somewhat different 



