258 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



were "given in a more rasping manner. The grating notes of the be- 

 ginning and the trill at the end are usually omitted by young birds." 



Mr. Trautman (1940) "timed an isolated singing male whose terri- 

 tory was in a small stand of cattail and found that between 10 p. m. 

 and 3 a. m. his average was 9 songs a minute." Another, in a simi- 

 lar situation, sang at the rate of 11 songs a minute between 1 :40 a, m. 

 and 2 :50 a. m. on a moonlight night. The singing slowed down during 

 the middle of the day, between 10 a. m. and 2 p. m., to 4 songs a minute. 

 "The amount of singing done by these birds declined sharply after 

 mid-August, and by September 5, only an occasional, half-hearted 

 song could be heard." 



Aretas A. Saunders writes to me : "The song of this bird is rather 

 low-pitched and guttural, or sometimes squeaky. It consists of a se- 

 ries of rapid notes, so rapid as to call the result a trill, but more fre- 

 quently slow enough to count the number. In 26 of my records, with- 

 out trills, the number of notes varies from 8 to 16 and the average 

 number is 12. In a majority of the songs the notes are all equal in 

 time, but some have portions where the notes are more rapid in part 

 of the song. These portions are sometimes the beginning and some- 

 times the end, or occasionally in the middle of the song. 



"The pitch of the notes varies from C" to C". One record is all on 

 one pitch (B'"). A number of others are all on one pitch except the 

 first or the final note, but others vary in numerous ways. The great- 

 est variation in pitch in any one song is 2i/^ tones, and the average 

 iy2 tones. I have occasionally seen a bird sing a flight song, when the 

 song is somewhat more prolonged than I have described, but I have 

 never succeeded in getting a record of this song. 



"In spite of the simplicity of this song the individuals vary it con- 

 siderably. I have recorded five different songs from one individual. 

 The quality sometimes changes from guttural to squeaky in the same 

 song. The time of songs varies from ll^ to 2 seconds, though flight 

 songs are probably longer." 



Field marks. — One hardly needs field marks to recognize a long- 

 billed marsh wren, for it is wrenlike in appearance and behavior, and 

 no other wren lives in such wet marshes. If perchance it is seen in 

 the drier part of a marsh or meadow, it can be distinguished from the 

 short-billed marsh wren by the blackish, unstreaked crown, the white 

 line over the eye, and the black upper back streaked with white. 



Enemies. — Hawks and owls would have difficulty in capturing these 

 active little birds as they dive into their dense retreats. Red- winged 

 blackbirds are often seen chasing wrens for reasons stated above. 

 Dr. Welter (1935) mentioned three small mammals, meadow mice, 

 jumping mice, and Bonaparte's weasels, as probably guilty of destroy- 

 ing some eggs and young. He says that Dr. A. A. Allen has seen 

 bronzed grackles eating the young and has found bumble bees occupy- 



