ANDERSON — THK BIRDS OF IOWA. 37 1 



rule frequents dryer situations, wet meadows, and the borders of 

 swamps and marshes, where the nest is hung quite close to the 

 ground in meadow grass. The eggs are 5-7 in number and pure 

 white. The Short-billed Marsh Wren is rather difficult to ob- 

 serve, as it is shyer than the other species and slinks away through 

 the grass and reeds with great secretiveness. 



Genus Telmatodytes Cabanis. 



335. (725). Telviatodytcs paliisiris iliacus'R.xd^wd.y. Prairie Marsh 

 Wren . 



The Long-billed Marsh Wren, or rather its new subspecies, the 

 Prairie Marsh Wren of Ridgway, is a common summer resident 

 in all parts of the state where suitable sloughs and marshes may 

 be found, being even abundant in some marshes, where its "rip- 

 pling, bubbling, gurgling song" may be heard as the little per- 

 former clings to the stem of a swaying reed. The song is often 

 heard at night, having the effect of a tiny bell tinkling in the 

 darkness. Several pairs are often found breeding in the same 

 marsh, and in such places dozens of the large globular nests may 

 be easily found, made of plaited rushes and saw-grass, with a tiny 

 hole in the side, suspended in reeds, rushes or saw-grass, about a 

 foot above the water. There will usually be at least half a dozen 

 of these conspicuous, new, unlined nests to each pair of birds, but 

 whether they are built as "decoys," for the residence of the male 

 birds, or as an expression of superabundant home-making energy, 

 is not known. The true nest which contains the eggs is invari- 

 ably a more dilapidated affair, more securely hidden, and nearer 

 the ground or water's edge. The eggs number four to seven, 

 very dark-colored, so thickly dotted with chocolate-brown as to 

 appear almost unicolored, the brown frequently forming a dark 

 wreath around the larger end. In Hancock county I found sev- 

 eral nests containing from one to seven fresh or very slightly in- 

 cubated eggs on June 12, 1897. 



The Prairie Marsh Wren appears in Iowa from the middle of 

 of April to the first of May, and departs in September. In many 

 parts of the state both species of Marsh Wrens are growing much 

 scarcer from year to year, owing to the restriction of their breed- 

 ing grounds by the extensive draining of sloughs and tiling of 

 meadows. 



