450 HISTORY OF THE 



Stretch of 

 Length. -wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 5.40 7.50 2.25 2.00 .82 .50 



Female 5.15 7.30 2.17 1.90 .82 .50 



Iris dark brown; bill ridge dusky, rest pale, with a faint 

 bluish hue; legs flesh color: feet a shade darker; claws brown. 



The birds inhabit the fresh water marshy grounds, edges of 

 reedy ponds and sloughs. They are very active, running about 

 and climbing with ease the stalks of grass or reeds, where they 

 sway about, often head downward, in their search for insect life 

 and seeds. When flushed they fly but a short distance, just 

 clearing the growth, into which they suddenly drop back. Their 

 call note, a sort of "Tweet," is often heard. Their song is a 

 short, weak, unmusical twittering warble, uttered at times as it 

 rises and hovers for a moment, but usually from a perch or as 

 it hops from stalk to stalk of the reeds, rushes and coarse 

 grasses. In the early fall I had a very good opportunity to 

 watch these birds at Inman Lake, McPhersoii county, Kansas. 

 They were not plenty, but I think two or three pairs must have 

 nested there. Once, while lying in the grass watching for water 

 fowls, I saw two young birds nearly grown. My attention was 

 called to them by their tremulous, clamorous notes, as the pa- 

 rent bird approached with food. I have not been so fortunate 

 as to find their nests and eggs, and fail to find a description of 

 the same farther than set forth in the subgenus. The birds are 

 an inland race of A. ccwdacut-us, the coast form that inhabits 

 the salt marshes, and their nesting habits and eggs are presum- 

 ably alike. 



GENUS CHONDESTES SWAINSOTT. 



"Bill swollen; both outlines gently curved; the lower mandible as high 

 as the upper; the commissure angulated at the base, and slightly sinu- 

 ated. Lower mandible rather narrower at the base than the length of the 

 gonys; broader than the upper. Tarsi moderate, about equal to the middle toe; 

 lateral toe equal and very short, reaching but little beyond the middle of the 

 penultimate joint of the middle toe. and falling considerably short of the base 

 of middle claw. Wings long, pointed, reaching nearly to the middle of the tail; 

 the tertials not longer than the secondaries; the first quill shorter than the sec- 

 ond and third, which are equal. The tail is moderately long, considerably grad- 

 uated, the feathers rather narrow and elliptically rounded at the end. Streaked 

 on the back. Head with well defined large stripes. Beneath white, with pec- 

 toral spot. Only one species recognized." 



