THE LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 393 



thrown up, and the tail so thrust forward, that he assumes 

 almost the shape of an irregular ring or triangle, and so 

 quite deceives one as to the length of his slender body. 

 Brown above, shading almost into black on the crown and 

 middle of the back; tail, barred; under parts, line over the 

 eye, and streaks on the back, white; sides, brownish he 

 bears a strong resemblance to the rest of the Wrens, but is 

 readily distinguishable by his white breast. His flight is 

 short, and every motion is exceedingly quick and nervous. 



In the tall bleached sedges of the previous year, this Wren 

 is very easily seen in May or early in June. Then he is 

 especially lively, hanging sidewise to the smooth perpen- 

 dicular culms, or grasping two opposite ones, one in each 

 wiry foot, his legs stretched apart in a horizontal line; or 

 tossing himself up several feet into the air, with head and 

 tail up, he will drop down, with a light and graceful flut- 

 ter, making his very best attempt at a song as he thus de- 

 scribes an abrupt curve. That song begins with a rather 

 harsh screeping note, followed by a rattling twitter, and 

 ends in a note very much like that with which it began. 



Pulling the boat somewhat into the sedges, we wade among 

 them half way to the knees in water. Here is the nest! 

 About the size of a common cocoanut, it is woven and in- 

 terlaced by the dried and discolored leaves of the sedges 

 and marsh-grass, intermixed with vegetable down, and 

 sometimes with an abundance of green moss, so as to make 

 the walls quite thick and firm, and is lined with finer mate- 

 rials perhaps the down from a vacated Duck's nest in the 

 neighborhood, or the feathers of a Coot devoured by the 

 Marsh Hawk; it has a hole in the side, so beset with down 

 as almost to close it up the artistic structure being hung 

 to the green or dried sedges or marsh-grass only a few 

 inches, or sometimes three or four feet from the water. These 



