January, 1S93.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



gregate in tlie two places before men- 

 tioned, where the grass does not grow 

 mucii over two feet in height and is not at 

 all thick or rank. At tliis time of the 

 year, with a little patience, almost any 

 number of nests can be found. 



In choosing a nesting site they (jstel- 

 /ar/'s) do not seem to be at all influenced 

 by the position of the streams, as some of 

 their nests were within ten feet of the 

 flowing water, while others were as much 

 as fifty yards off in the marsh, with abso- 

 lutely nothing to indicate their where- 

 abouts. 



The construction of the nests seems to 

 be as different in the two species as their 

 location, but neither ever use any mud. 

 The Long-bills' nest is a ver^' bulky piece 

 of work and is composed externally of tlie 

 soft pieces of the dead, coarse grass that 

 it finds on the hummocks where it builds, 

 while the other uses the fine grass before 

 described, taking the fresh green grass for 

 the outside and the softer dead grass for 

 the inside next to the lining, and makes a 

 much smaller nest. This makes the nest 

 of the latter much more difHcult to find, 

 as it is of the same color of the surround- 

 ing grass. 



Both birds build from two to six decoy 

 nests to the best of my belief, for each pair 

 seems to have a smaller area of the marsh 

 to themselves for building purposes, and 

 the number of nests in each "bunch" 

 varies between these two figures. I think 

 that one reason for these decoy nests being 

 built may be for convenience in the event 

 of the first nest being robbed or destroyed, 

 as I have taken a set of eggs from a nest 

 and a week or so later, on going to a decoy 

 nest close by the position of the old one, 

 found three fresh eggs in it. 



The lining materials are the same for 

 both birds, but vary considerably, as it is 

 in some nests of very fine grasses, others 

 entirely of feathers, while others will be 

 lined with the silky tufts of that variety of 



tufted grass which is so common in every 

 meadow. 



The Short-billed Marsh Wren has a 

 curious habit of often pulling to pieces any 

 nest that has been handled, whether decoy 

 or otherwise, so long as it has not begun 

 laying in it, for I have repeatedly placed 

 a stick a few feet from the nest with the 

 bearing noted, only to find the nest gone 

 afterwards except for a sort of thin skele- 

 ton of grass. 



If the nest contains a set of eggs I do 

 not think it is possible to make them de- 

 sert, as the two following incidents will 

 show. 



On June i, iSt)2, I collected a nest con- 

 taining six eggs, but, for some reason, I 

 did not have an egg-box (I cannot under- 

 stand how it happened), so I left the eggs 

 in the nest and laid it, entrance up, on the 

 hummock from which it had been cut, 

 and began to search for other nests further 

 off in the marsh. In about half an hour 

 I returned, walking rather carefully in 

 order not to overlook it or step on it. 

 Just as I reached the edge of the little 

 clearing of trampled grass and saw the 

 nest, the bird jumped out of it and flew 

 awa)'. I felt meaner for taking that nest 

 than for all the others I have taken put 

 together. I do not know whether she 

 would have hatched the eggs or not, but 

 she must have been on the nest for some 

 time before being frightened away, as the 

 eggs were perfectly warm. 



In the other case my brother found a 

 nest on July 16 containing seven eggs, 

 and, wishing to show it to a friend just as 

 it stood, stopped the entrance with a small 

 plug of grass. On July 34 he visited it 

 again and found that the top had been 

 hollowed out, enlarged and lined, so as to 

 make another perfect nest just above the 

 first one ; the second compartment con- 

 tained three eggs. Foolishly enough, we 

 left the nest to see if any more eggs would 

 be laid, but on visiting it two days later. 



