THE PERCHING BIRDS. 47 



wrens. There are two, the long- and the short-billed 

 species, the former being more common in the Mid- 

 dle States in summer, and the latter the more com- 

 mon in New England. In general habits they are 

 quite alike, building nests of the same pattern. One, 

 however, the short-billed species, lays white eggs; 

 the other, the long-billed wren, eggs that are so 

 speckled with chocolate dots that they appear at first 

 glance to be of a uniform brown. 



In the valley of the Delaware the marsh-wrens are 

 abundant as far as tide-water extends, but I have not 

 noticed them in and about the ponds above it. They 

 may be there in abundance, however. There are 

 three features of these wrens' lives that are prominent 

 characteristics : they live in colonies ; they build huge 

 globular nests in reeds and bulrushes ; they never 

 leave their homes, and always half the colony sings 

 at once, or one bird rising above the reeds gives the 

 order, as it were, and the colony joins in the chorus. 



Is it quite fair to speak of a bird's song as "con- 

 temptible," as has been done, when it is a clear, rip- 

 pling note, admirably adapted to the surroundings ? 

 This little wren's voice always suggested to me that 

 it gathered up drops of water, charged them with 

 music, and let them trickle down the reeds. 



My own observations of the nests have all been 

 made in the same neighborhood that Wilson studied 

 them, and now these nests lack a great deal of the 

 mud, and of many hundreds I have found only one 

 had a " penthouse." 



It is often asserted that our climate is changing, 

 and probably in one respect it is: we are having 



