THB OOLOQIST 



107 



mates crawled away amongst the 

 weeds and grass before offering flight. 

 We tied strings on many weeds where 

 we thought there might be nests, but 

 could at the time find nothing, for we 

 intended to return this way and more 

 cautiously approach these places. 



Upon arriving at the slough the first 

 sound to greet our ears was that of 

 the Marsh Wren, and although we had 

 never before heard its song, yet we 

 knew from its rattling nature resemb- 

 ling somewhat that of the House 

 Wren of which we have plenty in 

 town. We next found its nest and ex- 

 perenced the joy that only lovers of 

 nature experience and those who 

 study birds. We saw it hung in the 

 bull rushes some distance ahead. We 

 were disappointed however not to find 

 eggs. We know whether this was 

 a short-billed or a long-billed Marsh 

 Wren, and had no way of telling ex- 

 cept by the eggs as the reeds stood 

 up about us too high, and the little 

 fellows wouldn't sit anywhere long 

 enough to get our glasses focused on 

 them. 



As an architect the Marsh Wren 

 has them all beat to our minds. We 

 studied the nest a long time. First a 

 complete knot is tied about three or 

 four rushes with long grasses and the 

 ends are left to hang down and are 

 woven into the nest. This gives the 

 structure some support while it is be- 

 ing built. In the building, the grasses 

 are woven about several of the other 

 rushes or reeds within three or four 

 inches from the first main support. 

 While the weaving of grasses is go- 

 ing on, dry string-like moss which 

 grows among peet bogs in wet places 

 is woven in, forming the walls, fioor 

 and roof of the nest. The whole, when 

 completed, has a cone-like shape with 

 the point down, for in most cases they 

 fill up the space beneath the main ball 

 of the nest with folded and twisted 



rushes. There is a hole about the 

 size of one's thumb left at the side, 

 and near the top of the nest, through 

 which the little creature enters his 

 downy apartments. The whole of the 

 inside is thickly covered and below 

 with cat-tail down and the bed which 

 is thus prepared for the young was 

 never better prepared by any human 

 for their offspring. 



As we continued our wading, for we 

 came prepared to wade as deep as 

 necessary all over the slough, we dis- 

 discovered seven wrens' nests in all, 

 but none of them had eggs. We found 

 two or three which were woven 

 among the tall coarse grass and not 

 among the rushes, and these did not 

 have the filling below the ball of the 

 nest; but rather had the appearance 

 of a ball of grass hanging from the 

 knot tied about the few grases as 

 stated. This knot is two or three 

 inches above the body of the nest. We 

 concluded that perchance these grass 

 nests were one kind of Marsh Wren 

 while the rush nests would be the 

 other. We were destined however 

 never to substantiate our views. We 

 tied a small strip of white rag near 

 each nest for we intended to return 

 a week or ten days later. All the 

 nests seemed to be complete at the 

 time of finding. 



We did return on July 12, 1916. 

 The first nest we had found and re- 

 turned to had five chocolate brown 

 eggs in it, thus proving it to be a Long- 

 billed Marsh Wren's nest. It was 

 made among the rushes but to our 

 surprise we found all of the other 

 nests empty and we heard fewer 

 wrens. Could it be that our visit 

 scared them away, or was it our small 

 white rags, or did they build the nests 

 for the fun of building them? We 

 found other nests this time too, but all 

 empty. We thought the birds were 

 so proud of their work that they built 



