FAMILY Troglodytidz. 
stunted spruce or yellow birch pouring forth his melody 
with lightninglike rapidity for the benefit of the world at 
large. 
Short-billed This extremely active little Wren is, as ~ 
Marsh Wren’ <ome authors write, much more often heard 
Cistothorus : 
siblianes than seen, it prefers damp meadows and 
L. 4.50 inches bogs, and you cannot see it without great 
May 15th risk of wet feet and a fight with mosquitos. 
With a secretive little bird which dodges in and out among 
the grasses and sedges like a frightened mouse it is not 
easy to obtain even a scraping acquaintance! 
The range of the Short-billed March Wren is from 
southern Saskatchewan to southern New Hampshire, 
thence southwestward to Delaware, Missouri, and eastern 
Kansas; in general it is an inhabitant of the upper Austral 
zone. Its colors are extremely self-protective; the upper 
parts streaked with sepia, ash white, and ocher, the head 
with about six distinct blackish stripes, the wings and tail 
barred, and the lower parts dull white stained on the 
breast, sides, and under-tail with buff. Female similarly 
marked. The nest, near the ground, is round as a ball 
with the opening rather on the side and is built of grasses 
lined with the cottony down of various swamp plants. 
Egg, china white rarely with a few lavender specks. 
The snapping call note of this marsh-inhabiting Wren is 
certainly its most familiar note; it is without musical 
tone, and resembles the grating sound of little stones or 
glass balls striking together. The same grating note is 
heard in the monotonous song, though the latter in the 
height of the nuptial season acquires something in the 
nature of a descending trill belonging to a sparrow. The 
more deliberate opening notes are described by some author 
as like Chap-chap-chap but these are absolutely toneless; 
the rest of the song is erratic but somewhat musical, though 
I can promise nothing for accuracy in pitch: 
Twice 8vg 
aE mp. cresce. Ft $ on5F 
(A Kees narinonegs ce 120 6 MPLA IT I 
> ee eee 
Ti St ee oe a  ——— 2 
hy —f}- +} —_ 2 a 
Chap, chap, chap, chap, 
Chapr-r-r 
222 
