T. PALUSTRIS : LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 99 



LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 

 Telmatodytes PALUSTRIS {Burtr.) Bd. 



Chars. Above, clear brown, unbarred, the middle of the back black- 

 ish, streaked sharply with white ; crown of head usually dark, 

 often quite blackish, with a dull whitish supraciliary line. Below, 

 white or whitish, especially on central parts, but shaded with 

 brown on the sides, flanks, and crissum. Tail like the back, 

 evenly barred with dusky ; wings dusky, the inner secondaries 

 often barred or scolloped with pale brown. Bill blackish above, 

 pale below ; feet brown. Length, about 5.00 ; extent. 6.50 ; wing, 

 1.75-2.00 ; tail about the same; bill, 0.50, or rather more ; tarsus, 

 0.65-0.75. There is much difference in coloration, independently 

 of age or sex. 



Though this Wren is of very general distribution in 

 North America, sometimes proceeding even so far north 

 as Greenland, it appears 

 to be unknown in north- 

 ern New England, not 

 being given in any of the 

 Maine and New Hamp- 

 shire lists which I have 

 consulted. In Massachu- 

 setts and southward it is 

 a common summer resi- 

 dent, but in the nature of 

 the case is very locally distributed, being confined to 

 swampy tracts in the interior, and to the brackish or 

 salt marshes along the coast-line. In such places, 

 which alone seem to answer the requirements of its 

 nature, this Wren is found nesting in colonies of 

 greater or less extent, fastening a large globular nest 

 to the swaying reeds. This structure, very conspic- 



FiG. 24. — Long-billed Marsh Wren. 

 (Natural size.) 



