ALBERTA MARSH WREN 247 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTKIS LAINGI Harper 



ALBERTA MARSH WREN 



HABITS 



Dr. Francis Harper (1926) describes this wren as "nearest to T. p. 

 iliacits, but paler on scapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, and flanks ; 

 median area on forehead and crown more distinct. ( T. p. plesius is a 

 much browner and duller bird than laingi.) " 



The Athabaska Delta, where the type specimen of this race was 

 taken, is probably the northernmost point at which any long-billed 

 marsh wrens breed. Dr. Harper gives, as the range of this subspecies 

 in summer, Alberta and western Saskatchewan, and says that it seems 

 to intergrade with the prairie marsh wren in south-central Saskatche- 

 wan, and that the area of intergradation "may coincide with the 

 approximate boundary between the prairies on the east and the plains 

 on the west." 



The habits of the Alberta marsh wren are apparently similar in all 

 respects to those of the prairie marsh wren. 



There is a very pretty nest of tliis wren in the Thayer collection 

 in Cambridge, taken near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, on June 2, 1900. 

 It was "attached to tules in a muskeg" and was constructed chiefly of 

 a downy substance that looks like cattail down, very compactly felted 

 and reinforced with interwoven strips of the tules, or other marsh 

 plants, which bound the whole structure very firmly together; its 

 walls are so thick and solid that it must have been practically rain- 

 proof ; it is about 7 inches high and about 4 inches in diameter. There 

 is another nest, from the Little Red Deer River, Alberta, that is more 

 normal for the species, having been attached to the stems of bulrushes 

 and made of the usual materials. 



A. D. Henderson, of Belvedere, Alberta, writes to me of an ex- 

 perience that was new to him : "On July 8 I pushed my canoe into a 

 large bed of tules where marsh wrens were singing, leaving it close 

 to an empty nest. To enable me to find the canoe again without 

 difficulty after wading the tule bed, I attached a bunch of white cotton 

 to the tops of tall tules. On July 12 I returned to the same spot and 

 found that the wren had profusely bedecked the nest with the cotton 

 I had left nearby. It was put on quite loosely and not woven into 

 the structure." 



The eggs of the Alberta marsh wren apparently show the usual vari- 

 ations common to the species. The measurements of 23 eggs average 

 16.3 by 12.3 millimetters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 16.8 by 12.2, 16.4 by 13.1, 15.2 by 12.7, and 15.9 by 11.9 millimeters. 



