108 



THE OOLOGIST 



The Marsh Wrens In Columbia 

 County, Wisconsin. 



The greater part of my career as 

 a collector has been pleasantly spent 

 in the City of Columbus, in the South- 

 east corner of Columbia County, Wis- 

 consin, and in the surrounding coun- 

 try, which is diversified, and a better 

 collecting ground for the general col- 

 lector, and museum builder, would be 

 hard to find. 



Two of the most interesting birds 

 I have been permitted to study, were 

 the Long-billed and Short-billed Marsh 

 Wrens. The former, the coarse voiced 

 little fellow, is always to be found in 

 the portions of wet marshes where 

 the coarse grass and cat tails abound, 

 fiying from one reed to another, al- 

 ways appearing to be very busy, and 

 constantly on the lookout. Nearly al-. 

 ways in plain sight, but so constantly 

 on the move as to be little seen. They 

 sing a great deal, and do some scold- 

 ing, especially when they have nests. 

 I say nests, for they always have sev- 

 eral of them, but only one of the 

 number is used for family purposes. 

 In this are laid from four, usually five, 

 to as many as ten eggs, clean, creamy 

 white, very heavily marked with a 

 marbling of brown in several shades, 

 and some lilac; always glossy. The 

 nests are, as a rule, made of the 

 coarse dead grass and considerable 

 moss, and lined with finer stuff of 

 same material. Nest is placed well 

 up in the grass or reeds often eighteen 

 to twenty four inches from the ground, 

 usually very conspicuous. 



The other little elf, the Short-billed, 

 the more constant singer, is less sel- 

 dom seen, unless you are a close, 

 quick observer, for they keep close in 

 the thick grass, appear for one in- 

 stant, then dive out of sight among 

 the grass again, all the time singing 

 at frequent intervals. They always 

 inhabit the more extensive and drier 



marshes, never, so far as I know over 

 water, nor close to it. The nest is 

 smaller than the Long-billed, and en- 

 tirely of fine dead grass, always placed 

 close down to the ground, but inter- 

 woven in the growing green grass, so 

 as to be almost invisible. This spec- 

 ies also builds several nests, as I 

 have found several nests in one local- 

 ity, and only one pair of birds, and 

 only one nest that ever seemed to 

 reach a finished stage. I seldom find 

 the nests except by mere accident as 

 it were, after locating a pair of birds. 

 I well remember once while making 

 hay in a meadow of finding a great 

 many of the eggs and nests after the 

 machine had destroyed them. In 

 1890, I found a set and nest, six eggs, 

 and not another did I land until 1910, 

 a fine set of seven and nest. The 

 eggs are longer than the Long-billed, 

 and narrower, and pure white, with 

 slight gloss and range from five, us- 

 ually six, to eight in number. 



GEORGE W. H. VOS. BURGH. 



YELLOW HEADED BLACKBIRD, 



(Xanthociphalus xanthocipahlus) 



These handsome birds are quite 

 common in their range. They fre- 

 quent sloughs and marshes where they 

 breed in colonies; sometimes in com- 

 pany with Redwings; but usually 

 more restricted to sloughs filled with 

 heavy rushes. 



The nests, which are fastened to 

 rushes and stalks over the water, are 

 composed of strips of rushes and 

 sometimes moss. They are deeply 

 cupped and more bulky than the Red- 

 wing's. 



The eggs are grayish, thickly speck- 

 ed with pale brown. 



Last year the first migrant arrived 

 about April 21st; first set of eggs. 

 May 24th. 



