browned coffee. The ordinary ground-color is about like that of the common clay marble called a commie." 

 The markings consist of spots and speckles, often confluent, of a deeper shade of the ground color. 



Some effffs are unmarked. Others are thickly and evenlv marked over the entire surface. Some 

 have a well-defined, some a faint wreath of confluent marks about the crown, while others have the 

 wreath about the smaller end. Some have the marks very fine and indistinct, others moderately large 

 and bold. The various shades of ground-color and the different markings combine to make an endless 

 variety of patterns in these eggs. But, notwithstanding this great diversity, there is an indescribable 

 something about them which suggests, upon sight, to the experienced oologist, their parentage. Eggs 

 from the same set generally show considerable uniformity in coloring and also in size. The shell is 

 sometimes highly polished, sometimes dull. 



Ten sets of eggs, collected by Mr. J. B. Porter, of Glcndale, Ohio, near Port Clinton, Ottawa county, 

 o-ive an average size of .50 x .65. The largest measures .50 x .70; the smallest, .49 x .60 of an inch. 

 The greatest long-diameter is .70; the least long-diameter is .60. The greatest short-diameter is .51; 

 the least short-diameter is .48. 



DIFFERENTIAL POINTS: 



See differential points under "House Wren." 



REMARKS: 



Plate XLVI represents a nest and three eggs of the Long-billed Marsh Wren, taken in Ottawa 

 county, by Mr. J. B. Porter, in 1880. The specimen had been in his cabinet about two years before it 

 was drawn. The entrance is figm-ecl opened, as it can thus more readily be seen. The eggs show the 

 usual sizes, shapes, and markings, the center one being the commonest pattern. 



Mr. Porter, to whom I am much indebted for information regarding the breeding habits of the 

 species, found these birds plenty in the marshes about Sandusky Bay, in 1880, and, in company with 

 Dr. Langdon, examined a good many nests. Every ornithologist has noted the fact that but few nests 

 of the whole number found contain eggs, and many guesses have been made to account for the construc- 

 tion of so many useless houses. Mr. Porter found eggs in about every third nest, and noted that those 

 which contained eggs were somewhat more compactly built than the others. 



The Wrens seem to have sentinels all about their breeding grounds, whose duty it is to give the 

 alarm (a squeaky little note), on the approach of danger. When once the alarm is sounded, it is carried 

 from one to another, until every bird is aroused. This habit makes it very difficult to catch the birds 

 in or even near their nests. Dr. Coues, in " Northwestern Ornithology," says: "On entering a patch of 

 rushes where the Wre::s are breeding, we almost instantly hear the harsh, scraping notes with which 

 those nearest scold us, in vehement and angry resentment against the intrusion. From further away in 

 the maze of reeds we hear a merry little song from those still undistiu^bed, and presently we see 

 numbers flitting on feeble wing from one clump of sedge to another, or poised in any imaginable attitude 

 on the swaying stems. . . . Others may be seen scrambling like little mice up and down the reed- 

 stems or all over their globular nests. They appear among themselves to be excitable to the verge of 

 irascibility, and not seldom quite beyond such moderate limit; but on the whole they form a harmo- 

 nious little colony which minds its own business, and doubtless makes pleasant company for the Black- 

 birds and other larger species which build among them." 



158 



