236 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



impression of the haunts of this wren ; his studies were "made along the 

 tidewater creeks which empty into the Delaware River near Philadel- 

 phia. These creeks have high and wooded banks on one side, while on 

 the other side for the most part lie low stretches of alder swamps, 

 covered during the suromer with a rank growth of spatter-dock, cala- 

 mus, wild rice, and pickerel- weed, with here and there a clump of rose- 

 mallow or a gorgeous cardinal flower. It is here that countless num- 

 bers of these little birds find a congenial summer home." 



Aretas A. Saunders writes to me : "Here in Connecticut are many 

 bits of cattail marsh. Some contain both broad and narrow-leaved 

 cattail, and marsh wrens. Others contain only broad-leaved cattail and 

 no marsh wrens. They will nest where there are rushes {Scirpus) or 

 reeds {Phragmites) ^ 



Nesting. — The nests studied by Mr. Griggs were mainly in the marsh- 

 grass habitat, and within this area the wren builds its nest in various 

 plants. "The only condition necessary is that there be a place of an- 

 chorage 15 or more inches above ground. As a consequence of this, 

 marsh alder and groundsel trees are extensively used for nesting sites. 

 A few nests were found in Hibiscus^ and one in some poison ivy, which 

 happened to grow at the right angle. In a situation where alder is com- 

 mon, most nests are made in its branches ; likewise, where marsh grass 

 (Spartina) is thick a majority of nests are built among its stems. In 

 the locality examined a majority of wren nests were fairly close to the 

 water, because higher ground there afforded the right habitat. In a 

 slough just north of the island, nests were found over 150 yards from 

 the nearest water." 



The average height above ground of 21 nests measured early in 

 June was 33 inches, one was only 15 inches, and two were 72 and 78 

 inches up in groundsel-trees {Baccharls) . None of the nests in the 

 marsh grass, even later in the season when it averaged 8 feet high, 

 were over 51/2 feet above ground ; but one was recorded in a groundsel- 

 tree that was 9 feet up. The usual number of dummy nests per female 

 varied from two to four, rather fewer than reported for some other 

 subspecies. 



Mr. Hunt (1904) says that— 



along the Pensaukeu Creek each patch of calamus has its pair of Wrens, and 

 each pair build, on an average four nests. In this locality the globular nests 

 are generally built among the calamus stalks or in the crotch of an alder or 

 elder bush. A visit to these swamps, on May 30, 1904, shovped each pair of 

 birds to have three nests almost completed, while the foundation for a fourth 

 was in most cases already started. They seem to work on all of them at once. 

 I watched a Wren with a piece of building material in his bill. First he carried 

 it to one nest and started to stick it into that, then he flew away with it to 

 another nest and finally he inserted it into the walls of the third, evei*y little 

 while stopping to sing a snatch of his merry song. 



Robert Ridgway (1889) says of the nests that he observed in the 



