WORTHINGTON'S MARSH WREN 241 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS GRISEUS (Brewster) 



WORTHINGTON'S MARSH WREN 



Plate 44 



HABITS 



This is the rather small, decidedly gray race of the long-billed marsh 

 wrens that is apparently resident in the Atlantic coast region from 

 South Carolina to northern Florida. 



In naming this race, William Brewster (1893) compares it with the 

 northern race as follows : "Black of upper parts much duller and less 

 extended than in palustris, usually confined to the extreme sides of the 

 crown and a short narrow area in the middle of the back, and in 

 extreme specimens almost wholly absent. Brown of sides, flanks, and 

 upper parts pale and grayish. Dark markings of the under tail- 

 coverts, flanks, sides, and breast faint, confused and inconspicuous, 

 sometimes practically wanting." 



The haunts and habits of Worthington's marsh wren are very similar 

 to those of the more northern coastal race. It is confined almost 

 entirely during the breeding season, and probably for the rest of the 

 year, to the extensive salt marshes along the tidal creeks. Wayne 

 (1910) says that, near Charleston, S. C, when he was a boy, these 

 "birds fairly swarmed throughout the high marshes bordering these 

 creeks and it was not uncommon to find from 25 to 50 nests in a few 

 hours of careful search." In Florida, according to Arthur H. Howell 

 (1932), "the birds live in the wettest and boggiest parts of the salt 

 marshes, chiefly on the borders of the tidal creeks, where their nests 

 are fastened to the growing stems of the rushes, at a height of 2 or 3 

 feet above the water." Ivan R. Tomkins (1932) has found it along 

 the Savannah River to about 2 miles west of Savannah, or about 

 17 miles inland from the outer islands, including the river ricefields, 

 where the water is either fresh or brackish according to the height 

 of the river. 



Nesting. — Mr. Howell says that these wrens "breed in loose colonies, 

 often of considerable size." The nests "are constructed of dead leaves 

 of rushes and marsh grasses woven together and lined with fine grasses 

 and down from the cattails." What few nests of this wren I have 

 seen are similar to nests of the species I have seen elsewhere. A nest 

 in my collection was taken by Mr. Worthington in Nassau County, 

 Fla. ; it was 3 feet above the mud, suspended amongst the grass, near 

 the edge of a creek in a salt marsh ; it held six fresh eggs on July 6, 

 1906. 



Eggs. — What eggs I have seen are similar to the eggs of other long- 

 billed marsh wrens, showing the usual variations. Mr. Wayne (1910), 

 however, says: "On several occasions, between the years 1877 and 



