AM SNS, AULD, WREN. 303 
in any given nest only one textile substance will preponderate. Dead cat-tail 
leaves may be employed, in which case the numerous loopholes will be filled 
with matted down from the same plant. Fine dry grasses may be utilized, 
and these so closely woven as practically to exclude the rain. On Moses Lake, 
where rankly growing bulrushes predominate in the nesting areas, spirogyra 
is the material most largely used. This, the familiar, scum-like plant which 
masses under water in quiet places, is plucked out by the venturesome birds in 
great wet hanks and plastered about the nest until the required thickness is 
attained. While wet, the substance matches its surroundings admirably, but 
as it dries out it shrinks considerably and fades to a sickly light green, or 
greenish gray, which advertises itself among the obstinately green bulrushes. 
Where this fashion prevails, one finds it possible to pick out immediately the 
oldest member of the group, and it is more than likely to prove the occupied nest. 
The nest-linings are of the softest cat-tail down, feathers of wild fowl, or 
dried spirogyra teased to a point of enduring fluffiness. It appears, also, that 
the Wrens often cover their eggs upon leaving the nest. Thus, in one we 
found on the 17th of May, which contained seven eggs, the eggs were com- 
pletely buried under a loose blanket of soft vegetable fibers. The nest was 
by no means deserted, for the eggs were warm and the mother bird very 
solicitous, insomuch that she repeatedly ventured within a foot of my hand 
while I was engaged with the nest. 
The Marsh Wrens regard themselves as the rightful owners of the reedy 
fastnesses which they occupy, and are evidently jealous of avian, as well as 
human, intruders. In one instance a Wren had constructed a sham nest hard 
against a completed structure of the Yellow-headed Blackbird, and to the 
evident retirement of its owner. Another had built squarely on top of a 
handsome Blackbird nest of the current season’s construction, and with a 
spiteful purpose all too evident. 
No. 117. 
TULE WREN. 
A. O. U. No. 725a. Telmatodytes palustris paludicola (Baird). 
Synonyms.—Marsu WreEN (locally). WerstERN MarsH WREN (now re- 
stricted to T. p. plesius). CAtiFoRNIA MarsH WREN (inappropriate). PactFrc 
Marsu WREN. 
Description Adult; Similar to 7. p. plesius, but smaller and with colora- 
tion decidedly darker. Length about 4.75 (120.6); wing 1.97 (50); tail 1.73 
(44) ; bill .52 (13.2); tarsus .78 (20). 
