18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



two broods in a season, lajing frequently 10 eggs. Tbit» and 

 the above feed exclusively upon insects, and are very active in 

 the pursuit of them. Arriving in May, they settle down im- 

 mediately in the meadows, and do not leave them till a hard, 

 Avhite frost has come." The following is what he has to say 

 with regard to T. pnlustris: " Not abundant. Arrives in May, 

 and is found only in the meadow lands, generally in the 

 marshy, wet tracts that are undisturbed througliout the year. 

 Breeds in June, and raises two broods generally. Are most 

 frequently met with in September, when they may be seen flit- 

 ting about the reeds, apparently careless of the sliooting so in- 

 cessant about them at this time." 



In 1869, W. r. Turnbull in his list, "The Birds of East 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey," gives the Short-billed Wren as 

 "rather rare from April to September." 



Where Dr. Abbott found steUarin more common than palttstris 

 he does not state, but it is likely that his observations were 

 made along the Delaware and in the river marshes of south 

 Jersey. 



That Abbott should have found them so common in 1868, 

 while Turnbull classed them as rather rnre in 1869, shows that 

 there must be an error, and in view of the status of this species 

 to-day in the region probably covered by these records, I feel 

 that Dr. Abbott is mistaken in his record.* 



Mr. Stone in his "Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and New 

 Jer.sej'," gives C. slellnris as a " Rare migrant, and in southern 

 New Jersey occasional (regular?) winter resident;" also a 

 breeding record by Dr. Detwiller which I will note later on. 

 He further says, "we know of no other records of its breeding 

 in eastern Pa. or New Jersey." 



Mr. Stone tells me that his supposition that it is a regular 

 winter resident in southern New Jersey is based on the capture 



* Tliis view is strengthened bj' Dr. Abbott's s ub.-eqnoiit statement in his 1885 

 list of birds of Mercer Co., N. J., in " A Naturalist's Rambles About Home." 

 lie there quotes Turnbull on stcllaHs. biit adds, " 1 believe that more of these 

 birds are to be found than is commonly supposed. 1 l)ave fo\ind colonics of 

 them in certain limited tracts of reedy meadows." Oi' paluslria, he rightly says, 

 "abundant in all marshy or tide-water meadows." 



