LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 051 



HABITS. 



The Lo.ig-billeil Marsh Wren is locally distributed throughout Massachusetts but is 

 very abaiidaiit in some section.s, thus it was once numerous on the Fresh Pond marshes 

 in Caml)ridge and is now to be found in considerable numbers on tlie Wajland marshes. 

 In both of these places it formerly nested and still builds to some extent at Wayland. As 

 fir as my experience extends, this species will not nest in grass nor weeds iialess their 

 stems are surroun<led by water and for this reason avoids marshes in which the herbage is 

 not in this condition. Occasionallj" nests are placed in bushes which grow in the water, 

 !)ut J believe in no case unless they ai'e surrounded by grass or weeds. 



The well known singular habit which the Long-billed Marsh Wrens have of building 

 sevenil nests in a seii.son, in one of whicli only the eggs are deposited, seems to never 

 have been satisfactorily explained. I liave made a careful study of the building grounds 

 of this species and ha^'e seen lunidreds of nests and a-m of the opinion that the extra nests 

 are always built by the males. The nest occupied by the female, and possibly constructed 

 bv her. is, as a nd.e placed lower than the vacant nests made by the males, and is better 

 concealed. The extra nests ai'e also not always fully completed and it is not at all unu- 

 sual to find mere shells composed of the grass and not over an inch in thickness, while but 

 few if any are lined. They number all the way from two or three to eight and sometimes 

 even more, depending somewhat on the date in the breeding season, for the male evident- 

 ly continues building at least until the eggs are hatched. He always exhibits great 

 solicitude wheu-ever these fil.se nests are disturbed scolding the intruder very violent]}-, but 

 the female slips so quietly out of her domicile that I have never been able to detect her 

 when .slie was leaving it. tljus the nmltiplicity of nests cert;i inly favors her chances for 

 escape and so becomes of benefit to the propagation of the species, but how such an unusu- 

 jil habit became ev(dved is more dilficnlt to explain. The breeding season is rather late 

 bcirinning the first week iii June. On June 5tli, 1880, I found many nests on the Way- 

 land marshes which contained from one to six eggs, some of which contained embryos in 

 an advanced stage of incvibation. 



The song of the Long-billed Marsh Wren is a rather feeble bidibling or sputtering 

 kind of warble given usually when the birds are concealed in the thick grass, in which they 

 pass most of their time. They emerge, however, when disturbed and as related scold the 

 intruder vehemently raising their tails upward and over their backs so far as strongly 

 to remind one of the blade of a pocket knife when nearly closed. 



This species of wren departs for tlie South early in September, but I found a few on 

 the west bank of Pamlico Sound in some marshes about the mouth of Yesocking Creek 

 Novendjer 13th, 1876, and fourid them common at Juniper Bay a little to the southward 

 on the loth, but we did not find them that year between this place and the St. John's 

 River, Florida. They were common at Rosewood Florida in rather dry fields and in the 

 R.alt marshes of the Gulf coast in November and December, 1883. I do not think that 

 the true C. palustris migrates much south of this point, and that below this we find the 

 species next given. The Long-bills have been known to remain in the Fresh Pond swamps 

 at Cunbridiiv. M iss.ichu.-^etts nil wintt-r. 



