: 
18 JOURNAL OF THE 
Worthington’s Marsh Wren.'! (Czslothoraus palustris 
LTiseus). | 
The range of this bird as given by Mr. Brewster’ and 
later by Frank M. Chapman in his ‘‘Handbook of Birds 
of Eastern North America”’ is the ‘Coast of South Car- 
olina and Georgia.”’ In the marsh on Gull Island in 
Pamlico sound about twenty miles north of Cape Hatter- 
as marsh wrens were found in great numbers on May 
20th. The island which is approximately two hundred 
acres in extent is little more than a continuous salt marsh 
over the greater part of which the water rises at high 
storm tides. At the time of my visit the birds were in 
full song and from every side of the marsh came the 
notes of scores of birds. While singing the performers 
usually occupied positions entirely out of sight except as 
occasionally they would make short flights upward and 
burst into song as they dropped back again into the cov- 
er of the high thick grass. 
It was evidently too early in the season for the birds 
to be breeding for, of the twelve nests found and exam- 
ined, there were none that contained either eggs or young. 
The nests were suspended among the grass stalks at dis- 
tances varying from sixteen to twenty inches above the 
eround or shailow waters. They were entirely roofed 
ever and varied in form from almost round to elliptical. 
They were composed of the dead stems and _ blades of 
marsh grass neatly wound and woven together while the 
material was yet damp, thus forming a strong and very 
durable structure. The entrance was a small opening in 
17.his new variety was described by William Brewster in the Auk 
for July 1893, Vol. 10, pp. 215-219. 
It differs from the species C. palustris mainly in having the black of 
the upper parts duller and less extended, brown of the sides, flanks and 
upper parts much paler and grayish, and the dark markings of the un- 
der parts confused and inconspicuous. 
