In Marsh and Swamp. 295 



acter of its plumage above is a streaked mixture of white and buff and dark 

 brown and black. The wings and tail are barred dusky brown or blackish and 

 Short-billed Marsh g ra Y isn or reddish brown. The under parts are white or 

 Wren. grayish white, shading into warm buff on the breast, sides, 



CistothorusstellarsCLicht.). 



The nest is placed on or near to the ground, and is spherical with a 

 small hole on the side for an entrance. It is built of coarse grasses and reeds, 

 and lined with finer grasses and plant down. It is generally concealed in the 

 heavy tussock of grass which serves to sustain it. The eggs are pure white, 

 generally immaculate, but sometimes marked with faint lavender and reddish 

 brown specks. They are rather more than three fifths of an inch long and 

 less than half an inch in their smaller diameter. 



SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



The Short-billed Marsh Wren does not always seek the wet marshes, 

 but may be also found in damp meadows quite away from water. It is not 

 so much a bird of the salt marshes as the Long-billed Marsh Wren, but is 

 much like that bird in its general nervous habits and in its propensity to re- 

 sent any intrusion upon what it considers its domain. During the breeding 

 season its song is distinctly wren-like and very charming, and at all times of 

 the year it informs you of its presence by guttural scolding not^s similar to 

 the Lonof-billed Marsh Wren and like some of the House Wren's tones. 



o 



The birds are found in Eastern North America as far north as Southern New 

 Hampshire, Southern Michigan, Southern Ontario, and Southern Manitoba. 

 They range west to the Plains. They breed locally throughout their United 

 States range, and winter in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. 



