NATURE'S CALENDAR 175 



are the marsh wrens — lonu;-billed and August 3 



short-billed. They resemble in appear- 

 ance the ordinary house wrens, cocking 

 up their tails and dashing about with the 

 same air of scolding energy. It is aston- 

 ishing how numerous they are among 

 the reeds of all the back bays, and while 

 you hear their incessant, powerful, and 

 melodious voices on every side, how dif- 

 ficult it is to get sight of one. By this 

 month, of course, they are long past the 

 breeding- time, but you may find hun- 

 dreds of their nests still frequently occu- 

 pied as roosting- places at night by both 

 old and young. They are in the form of 

 large, hollow ball baskets woven of grass, 

 hung to the reeds, and entered by a small 

 door in the side. If there is a bird with 

 more jollity in him than a marsh wren, I 

 don't know his name. 



As August wanes into golden Septem- 

 ber one begins to see many shore-birds 

 that are slowly making their way south- 

 ward. Upon the grassy downs along- 

 shore, plovers, like the killdeeand upland, 

 whirl about and shout out their names; 

 nimble sandpipers go skurrying along the 

 sands wherever you walk, chasing the 

 retreating ripples to their lowest verge, 

 then skipping back out of the way of each 

 advancing wav^e ; and the marshes be- 

 come noisy with the clucking of various 

 mud-hens and alive with ducks and their 

 kindred. Autumn is the heyday of sea- 

 side birds. 



