WESTERN MARSH WREN 259 



ing the nests. Fleas, lice, and hippoboscid flies sometimes damage the 

 young. 



Fall.— Dr. Welter writes : "There is no marked exodus of birds from 

 the marsh at a given time in the fall. At first the young of the year 

 remain in family groups but, as the time of departure approaches, 

 there is an apparent flocking together of young birds, usually near the 

 the water's edge. At this time 25 or 30 birds may be observed together 

 feeding near the surface of the water. * * * The first birds to 

 leave are the adults and some of the young of the first brood." No 

 adults were found after September 10; the birds that remain after that 

 date are young birds, mostly those of the second brood, either in ju venal 

 plumage or molting out of it. "As these birds complete the molt they, 

 too, depart for their winter homes so that, by October 20, only a few 

 scattered individuals remain. By the first of November these, also, 

 have departed." 



Elon H. Eaton (1914) describes the departure thus: 



On one occasion while I was concealed in a blind watching for ducks to enter 

 the marsh, I saw the last representative of this species leave the marshes at the 

 foot of Canandaigua Lake. It was a cool night late in October when the moon was 

 at the full. The little fellow uttered a feeble warble which attracted my attention 

 and then rose from near my station, fluttering higher and higher into the air 

 until lost at an elevation of about 300 feet, where I caught my last glimpse of him 

 against the full moon. The following morning when I visited the marsh no more 

 wrens were left. Evidently they migrate at night, and high in the air, so as to 

 see their way and escape their enemies more successfully. 



Winter. — Most of the prairie marsh wrens migrate in fall and spend 

 the winter in Mexico or along the Gulf coast to western Florida. But 

 some few individuals remain in their summer haunts all winter in the 

 shelter of the dense cattail marshes. There are winter records for 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Ohio. It may be that they 

 are more common in winter than we realize, for they are silent and 

 remain well hidden in the marshes, where they are hard to find. 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS PLESIUS Oberholser 



WESTERN MARSH WREN 



Plate 47 



HABITS 



The western marsh wren breeds in the Great Basin regions of the 

 western United States, from central British Columbia, Washington 

 and Oregon, and northeastern California eastward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains in central Colorado and southward into New Mexico. Its winter 

 range extends into Mexico. 



Ridgway (1904) describes it as "very similar in coloration of upper 

 parts to T. p. iliacus, but the brown averaging paler and decidedly less 

 ruf escent ; upper tail-coverts usually more or less distinctly barred with 



