420 NOTES ON THE 
dusky and whitish, and spotted with white more anteriorly; 
outer web of primaries simiarly spotted with pale brownish- 
white. An indistinct pale line over the eye. 
Length, 4; wing, 1.66; tail, 1.26 
Habitat, eastern North America. 
CISTOTHORUS STELLARIS (LICHTENSTEIN.) (724.) 
SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
The meadows and willow swamps to which the Marsh Wrens 
at once resort upon their arrival, preclude the probabilities of 
knowing just when that takes place, but from a comparison of 
observations of several local observers it is not much removed 
from the first of May. They are so exceedingly shy, and hide 
in the reeds and grass so effectually that they are apparently 
rare, yet from personal observations I cannot quite think they 
are. When I have made special search for them I have gen- 
erally been unsuccessful, either from too great haste, or from 
putting myself too directly in their way, but when entirely 
alone and I have waited in complete ambush for some time, 
I have generally been rewarded with the sight of several, and 
the pleasure of obtaining one or two. I have found several 
nests quite near each other, with eggs in by the 25th of May. 
They are constructed in such a manner as to look like a loose 
ball of grass hanging in a tussock of coarser grass or reeds, 
about a foot above the ground. The whole is usually well 
within a field of reeds or wild rice, where few persons would 
be likely to go except to retrieve a duck, unless specially in 
search of the nest. By the weaving of fine grasses ingeniously 
in with the coarse, the exterior of the nest is compacted to im- 
perviousness, while the inner nest is composed of fine grass, 
and lined with soft down from the bark and blossoms of vege- 
tables. The eggs, variously from six to ten, are pure white, 
and exceedingly thin-shelled. 'The entrance to the nest is very 
small and in some scarcely appreciable. They are widely dis- 
tributed. 
Prof. Herrick found it breeding at Lake Shatek ‘‘in consid- 
erable numbers.” 
Mr. Washburn, in his report to me of his explorations in the 
Red river valley, says of the Short-billed Marsh Wren, it is 
‘common in the marshes throughout the valley; breeding in 
colonies in the tall grass. A most interesting bird, as bold, 
saucy and inquisitive as his cousin, the Long-billed Marsh 
Wren. In a large marsh near Ada, I found a colony of these 
