260 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



dusky, and middle rectrices more distinctly barred ; color of flanks, etc., 

 conspicuously different, being pale wood brown, pale isabclla color, or 

 pale broccoli brown instead of bright buffy cinnamon or tawny-bufF, the 

 under tail-coverts usually more or less distinctly barred ; wing and tail 

 averaging decidedly longer (especially the tail), cuhnen averaging 

 slightly shorter." 



The haunts of the western marsh wren are evidently similar to those 

 of the other races that breed in the fresh-water marshes and sloughs in 

 the interior. 



Nesting. — Dawson and Bowles (1909) give a very good description 

 of the nest of this wren as follows : 



The Marsh Wren's nest is a compact ball of vegetable materials, lashed midway 

 of cat-tails or bulrushes, living or dead, and having a neat entrance hole in one 

 side. A considerable variety of materials is used in construction, but in any given 

 nest only one textile substance will preponderate. Dead cat-tail leaves may be 

 employed, in which case the numerous loopholes will be filled with matted down 

 from, the same plant. Fine dry grasses may be utilized, and these so closely woven 

 as practically to exclude the rain. On Moses Lake, where rankly growing 

 bulrushes predominate in the nesting areas, spirogyra is the material most largely 

 used. This, the familiar, scum-like plant which masses tinder water in quiet 

 places, is plucked out by the venturesome birds in great wet hanks and plastered 

 about the nest until the required thickness is attained. AVhile wet, the substance 

 matches its surroundings admirably, but as it dries out it shrinks considerably and 

 fades to a sickly light green, or greenish gray, which advertises itself among the 

 obstinately green bulrushes. Where this fashion prevails, one finds it possible to 

 pick out immediately the oldest member of the group, and it is more than likely to 

 prove the occupied nest. 



The nest-linings are of the softest cat-tail down, feathers of wild fowl, or dried 

 spirogyra teased to a point of enduring fluffiness. It appears, also, that the Wrens 

 (»ften cover their eggs upon leaving the nest. Thus, in one we found on the 17th 

 of May, which contained seven eggs, the eggs were completely buried under a loose 

 blanket of soft vegetable fibers. The nest was by no means deserted, for the eggs 

 were warm and the mother bird very solicitous, insomuch that she repeatedly 

 ventured within a foot of my hand while I was engaged with the nest. 



A nest in the Thayer collection, taken in Lassen County, Calif., on 

 May 10, 1910, was built in tules 2i/2 feet above the water. It is a 

 large well-made nest constructed mainly of the fruiting or dry flower 

 clusters of some marsh plant, firmly reinforced and compactly inter- 

 woven with narrow strips of tules or other marsh plants, forming a 

 very solid and durable structure ; it measures about 7 inches in height 

 by about 4 inches in diameter. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the western marsh wren are indistinguishable 

 from those of the other races of the species. The measurements of 40 

 eggs average 16.1 by 12.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 17.3 by 13.2, 16.6 by 13.4, and 14.5 by 11.0 millimeters. 



Winter. — Harry S. Swarth (1917) makes the following interesting 

 observation on the winter distribution of this wren in California : 



