Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 187 



The nest is globular, with the entrance at one side, and is 

 constructed of partially decayed blades of the marsh grass, which 

 is used in a wet and muddy state, enabling the material to adhere. 

 It is lined with the tips of the marsh grass and occasionally a few 

 feathers. These birds often build no less than eight or ten nests 

 in a season, because the spring tides often submerge them, and 

 a mouse {Hesperomys leucopus), which lives in the marsh and 

 builds a nest similar to that of the wren, commonly takes posses- 

 sion of the nest and often eats the eggs as well as the young. 



The birds sing persistently all through the breeding season, 

 but are silent in autumn and winter. At the present time the 

 birds are rare and confined to a few restricted and widely sepa- 

 rated localities, the great cyclone of August 27 and 28, 1893, having 

 almost exterminated them. This form is non-migratory, and 

 I understand that it is abundant on the coast of Georgia. If 

 the birds were migratory the places of those that were destroyed 

 by the cyclone of 1893 would be filled by migrants from Florida 

 and Georgia. This, however, has not been the case, showing 

 conclusively that this form is non-migratory. 



In the Auk,^ Prof. Robert Ridgway and the writer recorded 

 this wren under the name Cistothorus mariance, which was an 

 error. Mr. Wilham Brewster, by whom this form was described, 

 recorded it in the Auk,- from Sapelo Island, Georgia, under the 

 name Cistothorus palustris mariance, which was also an error. 



When in full adult plumage this form is unmistakable — being 

 a gray bird. There is no evidence that griseus interbreeds with 

 mariance, and I think it should be given full specific rank. The 

 breeding range of griseus extends along the South Carolina coast 

 as far north as the mouth of the Santee River. A glance at the 

 map of South Carolina will show that there are no salt marshes 

 of any extent from Georgetown to Southport, N. C, in which 

 this wren could breed. 



291. Telitiatodytes palustris iliacus Ridgw. Prairie Marsh 

 Wren. 



This form is a regular autumn visitor, arriving by September 

 18 and remaining until the last of October or possibly the first 

 week in November. It may winter, but I have not established 

 the fact by the actual taking of a specimen, although I have ob- 



1 VIII, 1891, 239-240. 2 y, 1888, 432. 



