* ORDER PASSERES. 49 



Delaware. Yet it is seen rarely in Pennsylvania, and still 

 more rarely in the state of New York. It is very frequently 

 met with on the banks of James river. It seems to delight 

 in the obscurity of the cypresses that border the marshes, in 

 profound caverns, and in piles of timber fallen together from 

 age, in the neighbourhood of rivers, and small streams. It 

 has all the habits of our wren. It conceals itself in holes, in 

 crevices of the earth, and is perpetually in motion. It appears 

 and disappears every moment. Its cry, which it utters from 

 time to time, is loud and strong, not unlike a burst of laugh- 

 ter, and seems to express, according to Wilson, the word 

 chirr-up, the first syllable being lengthened and strongly 

 dwelt on. It has another song, but much more soft and mu- 

 sical. It sounds something like our English words, sweet 

 William, sweet William. 



The Marsh Wren of Wilson, is another bird of this division 

 (CerthAa Palustris). It inhabits marshy places ; sojourns in 

 reeds, and prefers those whose roots are bathed by water. It 

 is continually jumping over their stalks, like the reed-wren, 

 already described, with which it has additional relation from 

 its song and continual babble. It has not been observed to 

 fix on trees or shrubs. It even seems to avoid fixing on the 

 brambles or bushes which are on the edges or in the centre of 

 its usual haunts. Its song, if indeed such a name can be 

 given to an assemblage of various cries, repeated twenty times 

 in succession, without interruption, and in the same key, is as 

 hoarse and disagreeable as the croaking of the frogs which are 

 its habitual companions, and as troublesome, from its long 

 duration. The slight cracking, says Wilson, made by glo- 

 bules of air forcing their way through a marshy soil, as you 

 walk along, may give you a tolerable notion of this delightful 

 warble. Many couples of this species are found in the same 

 district, and the males seem to take pleasure, like the frogs, 

 in vying with each other in uttering the loudest cries. This 

 work continues, during hatching time, from dawn until mid- 



VOL. VII. E 



