BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



3/1 



been an infrequent visitor to the Fresh Pond Marshes, even at its seasons of 

 migration. The only instance Icnown to me of its recent occurrence tliere in 

 summer is that of a male which Mr. Walter Fa.xon observed at repeated inter- 

 vals between June 22 and July 28, 1899. 



As long ago as the summer of 1868 Mr. H. \V. Henshaw and I found 

 three or four pairs of Short-billed Marsh Wrens, and one of their nests, in Rock 

 Meadow. I have since seen the birds in this meadow whenever I have visited 

 it at the proper season, but I have no evidence that they have nested there 

 within the past ten or twelve years. As far as I know definitely, the species 

 has been met with in summer in the Cambridge Region only at the localities 

 above mentioned. 



233. Telmatodytes palustris (WILs.). 

 Long-billed M.^^rsh Wren. 



Summer resident, abundant in one locality where a few birds liave also been known to 

 remain dirough the winter. 



seasonal occurrence. 

 May I 5 — October I. (Winter.) 



NESTING DATES. 



June 12 — 20. 



The evident fact that Nuttall was unacquainted with the Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren in life is fairly conclusive evidence that the bird did not occur commonly 

 in the Fresh Pond Marshes in his time ; had it done so he and the Cabots (who 

 also apparently failed to meet with it) could scarcely have overlooked its pres- 

 ence. As earl)' as 1868, however, I found a few Long-billed Marsh Wrens 

 breeding at the eastern end of the Brickyard Swamp, and in 1875 I discovered 

 another small colony on the banks of Little River just to the northward of Beech 

 Island. In both places the birds were nesting in narrow belts of cattail flags 

 which, at that time, grew only sparingly and locally in the Fresh Pond region. 

 With the general dispersion of these flags, which followed the burning of the 

 marshes about twenty years ago, the Long-billed Wrens began to increase in 

 numbers and to extend their local distribution. By 1896 they had spread over 

 the greater part of the region bounded by the Glacialis, Alewife Brook, Little 



