BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 421 



wrens, which by my presence was thrown into most excitable 

 activity. They are at a disadvantage when on the wing, these 

 appendages seeming scarcely able to support their obese bodies, 

 for they fly as though weighted like a bee returning to a hive 

 heavily laden. Instinctively they fly toward the friendly sup- 

 port of some tall weed where, as if feeling more secure on their 

 feet than in the air, they resume their antics, hanging their 

 heads downward, twirting their tails, jumping from one reed 

 to another, and each bird apparently communicating its rest- 

 lessness to its neighbor until the whole colony is in a state of 

 ferment. They do not alight gracefully like most birds, but 

 seem to tumble into the weeds." This would seem to indicate 

 that the Short-billed Marsh Wrens are more abundant in the Red 

 river country than almost anywhere else in our special field of 

 investigations. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill very short, scarcely half the head; wings and tail about 

 equal; hinder part of the crown, scapular, and interscapular 

 region of the back and rump, almost black, streaked with 

 white; tail dusky, the feathers barred throughout with brown; 

 upper parts, with the exceptions mentioned, reddish brown. 



Length, 4.50; wing, 1.75; tail, 1.75. 



Habitat, eastern United States, west to the Plains. 



CISTOTHORUS PALUSTRIS (Wilson). (725.) 

 LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



Prom every section of the State not personally visited, I 

 have the uniform testimony of the abundance of this species. 

 The migrations are indeterminately synchronous with the 

 Short- bills; and their haunts and breeding places the same in 

 both species, except that the nests of this is found nearer the 

 edges of the marsh. If anything, it is also a little the larger 

 of the two, and is suspended on the coarse, strong reeds, fairly 

 above all dangers from high waters overflowing the banks of 

 sluggish streams that meander the swamps and marshes. In 

 the exterior construction, rushes and coarse grass are closely 

 interwoven, and the interstices neatly filled with mud, giving 

 it a very artistic, compact appearance, in size nearly six inches 

 in diameter. About one-third below the top a small hole for 

 entrance is left, overhung by a projection or canopy to exclude 

 the rain. Internally the nest is lined with fine grass, feathers 

 and vegetable down. They rear two broods in a season, form- 

 ing a new nest for each brood. From six to ten eggs is about 



