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THE TULE WREN. 
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size ; brownish coloration ; reed-haunting habits 
and sputtering notes distinctive. 
Nesting.—Nest: shaped like a cocoanut, of reeds and grasses, lined with 
plant-down, and with entrance in side; placed two or three feet high in reeds, 
rarely, high in bushes of swamp. Eggs: 5 or 6, ground-color grayish brown but 
so heavily dotted and clouded with varying shades of chocolate and mahogany 
as to be frequently obscured. Av. size .67 x .52 (17 x 13.2). Season: last week 
im March to July ; two broods. 
General Range.—Pacific Coast district from British Columbia south during 
migration to mouth of Colorado River and extremity of Lower California. 
Range in Washington.—Resident in suitable localities west of Cascades. 
Authorities.—Cistothorus (Telmatodytes) palustris Cab. Baird, Rep. Pac. 
REURS Stay Neu pisell ee O5S.npis OAn anton CeSemb a Reel kauls ees: 
Specimens.—U. of W. E. Prov. 
WHEN the February sun waves his golden baton over the marshes 
of western Washington, they yield up a chorus of wren song which is 
exceeded only by that of the frogs. The frogs, to be sure, have the ad- 
vantage, in that their choral offering has greater carrying power; but the 
Wrens at close quarters leave you in no doubt that the palm belongs to 
them. One hesitates to call the medley of clicking, buzzing, and sputter- 
ing, which welters in the reeds, music; but if one succeeds in catching sight 
of a Tulé Wren, holding on for dear life to a cat-tail stem, and vibrating like 
a drill-chuck with the effort of his impassioned utterance, he feels sure that 
music is at least intended. 
Wrens are ever busy bodies, and if they could not sing or chatter, or at 
least scold, they surely would explode. It is a marvel, too, that they find so 
much to interest them in mere reeds, now green, now brown, set above a foot 
or so of stagnant water. But, bless you! Do not waste your sympathies upon 
them. They have neighbors,—Red-wings, Yellow-throats, and the like— 
and is it not the gossips of the little village who are most exercised over their 
neighbors’ affairs? 
It seems probable that our Tulé Wrens are largely resident. Certainly 
they are abundant in the more sheltered marshes in winter; and, since the 
species does not extend very far northward, it is possibly not too much to 
assume that our birds live and die in a single swamp. They are, as a conse- 
quence, very much mixed up on their seasons, and I have heard a swamp in 
full song in November. 
Nesting in the South Tacoma swamp, where several scores at least may be 
found, begins the last week in March, and full sets of eggs may certainly be 
found by the first week in April. But “decoys” are, of course, the rule. Ina 
day Mr. Bowles found fifty-three nests, only three of which held eggs or 
young. At least two broods are raised in a season. 
The eggs, usually five or six in number, are so overlaid with tiny dots as 
