MARIAN'S MARSH WREN 243 



and to which the reader is referred, as space will permit only a few 

 quotations from his excellent paper. 



A perusal of the literature that appeared prior to 1932 will reveal 

 some confusing statements. Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1904) made the 

 following surprising comment : "Originally described from the west 

 coast of Florida and believed to be resident there and restricted to 

 that locality, it has only recently become evident that the real home of 

 Marian's Wren is in the salt marshes that fringe the coast of North 

 Carolina. There it is common in spring, breeds, and occasionally re- 

 mains in winter, as I took one on Pea Island — 30 miles north of Hat- 

 teras — on Feb. 8, 1901, and found it tolerably common there in Jan- 

 uary, 1904." He found fresh nests there in May, and, after he left, 

 nests with eggs were sent to him from there. 



Ridgway (1904) gave the range as south Atlantic coast of United 

 States from North Carolina to South Carolina and western Florida. 

 And the 1910 Check-list gave it as breeding on the coast of North Caro- 

 lina and wintering south to South Carolina and the west coast of 

 Florida. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) backs up Dr. Bishop by saying 

 that "it breeds, as far as is known, only on the North Carolina coast." 

 He records it as a migrant in South Carolina, where he says that "they 

 are common mitil the beginning of November, when the great major- 

 ity migrate southward, but a few winter regularly among dense reeds 

 which grow in profusion on some of the coast islands." Strangely 

 enough, the 1931 Check-list does not record any marsh wren as breed- 

 ing on the coast of North Carolina ! 



It has since become evident that all the Atlantic coast records of 

 supposed Marian's marsh wrens, published prior to 1930, are referable 

 to the new dark-colored race, Telmatodytes palustris waynei, recently 

 described by Dingle and Sprunt (1932). This race is so strikingly 

 similar to marianae in most of its characters that the confusing of 

 the two is not surprising. The status of loaynei as the breeding marsh 

 wren of the North Carolina coast has recently been confirmed by Dr. 

 Alexander Wetmore (1941) and his assistants, as one of the results 

 of their field work there during 1939. 



In his original description of marianae^ W. E. D. Scott (1888b) 

 says : "The great difference between this species and palustns is in the 

 conspicuous barring of the upper and under tail-coverts and the feath- 

 ers of the flanks, and olive instead of rufous brown coloring through- 

 out, with the much darker coloration of underparts." The differences 

 between marianae and toaynei are not so well marked and are much 

 less conspicuous. Dingle and Sprunt (1932) say : "x\. satisfactory com- 

 parison of Telmatodytes palnstns loaynei with marianae is not possible 

 on account of inadequacy of specimens of the latter. In size, waynei 

 seems to be slightly larger than the Florida form ; in color it is quite 

 similar, except that there is more white on the under parts." 



