620 AVES — WREN... WHEAT-EAR. 



THE MARSH WRENi 



Is very numerous along the tide-water of the rivers in Pennsylvania, where 

 they frequent the reeds and splatter docks, to search for flying insects, and 

 green grasshoppers, which are its principal food. To such places it limits 

 its excursions. As to its notes, it would be mere burlesque to call them song. 

 It builds a durable and warm nest of rushes and mud, whicli it suspends 

 among the reeds. Its size, color, and habit of erecting its tail, give it some- 

 thing the appearance of the house wren. It is five inches long, and of a 

 dark brown color. 



THE GREAT CAROLINA WREN^ 



Would at first sight be called a wren, but this and the preceding are de- 

 cidedly creepers. It is found only in the southern states, where it is at- 

 tached to cypress swamps, deep hollows, among decaying timber, and coves 

 near rivers and creeks. It has all the jerking manner of the wren, skipping 

 about with great nimbleness, hopping into caves, and disappearing into holes 

 and crevices like a rat, for several minutes, and then reappearing in another 

 quarter. It occasionally utters a loud, strong, and singular twitter, resem- 

 bling the word chirrup, dwelling long and strongly on the first syllable. It 

 has also another chant, rather more musical, like " Sweet William, Sweet 

 William," much softer than the former. Its food seems to consist of those 

 insects and their larvae that frequent low damp caves, piles of dead timber, 

 old roots, projecting banks of creeks, &;c. It is five inches and a quarter 

 long, and of a reddish brown color. 



THE WHEAT.EAR.3 



This bird weighs upwards of an ounce, and has a slender black bill, about 

 half an inch long ; the tongue is cloven or slit, and the inside of the mouth 

 black ; the eyes are of a hazel color, above which there is a white line pass- 

 ing towards the hinder part of the head ; and below them, a large black one, 

 which extends itself from the corners of the mouth to the ears. The head 

 and back appear of a cinereous color, with a mixture of red. The rump is 



1 Troglodytes palustris, Bonap. ^ Troglodrjtes ludoricianus, BoNAt. 



* Saxicola cenanthe, Bechst. The genus Saxicola has the bill straight, slender, slightly 

 carinated, and advancing upon the forehead ; the top of the under mandible a little bent 

 and emarginated ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly concealed by a membrane ; tarsus 

 considerably longer than the middle toe ; the outer toe joined at "its base to the middle 

 one ; third and fourth quill feathers the longest. 



