520 AVES—WREN...WHEAT-EAR 
THE MARSH WREN! 
3s very numerous along the tide-water of the rivers in Pennsylvania, wnere 
they frequent the reeds and splatter docks, to seareh 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, which 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 WREWN?2 
Wouvtp 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 anot'.er 
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 larve that frequent lew damp caves, piles of dead timbe1 
old roots, projecting banks of creeks, &c. It js five inches and a quarter 
long, and of a reddish brown color. 
THE WHEAT-EAR. 
Tuts bird weighs upwards of an ounce, and has a slender blacx bill, avout 
half an inch long; the tongue is cloven or slit, aad 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 vump is 
— -— 
1 Troglodytes palustris, Bonar. 2 Troglodytes ludovicianus, Bonar. 
3 Saxicola enanthe, Becust. The genus Sazicola has the bill straight, slender, slightly 
carmated, and advancing upon the forehead; the top of the under mandible a little bent 
and emarginated ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly concealed by 8 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. 
