36 CISTOTHOETJS STELLARIS, SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



all laid by the same bird. They are very peculiar in appearance, being 

 perhaps the most heavily colored of any found in this country. The 

 usual color is a rich, dark chocolate, but it is extremely variable. . Some- 

 times it is perfectly uniform ; again, it is nearly uniform, but with a 

 darker area at the large end or around it ; occasionally a whitish ground 

 shows, thickly dotted or smirched with the chocolate, or a nearly uniform 

 brownish-white surface is presented, as if the color had washed out, ex- 

 cept in a few dark spots or patches. The egg averages two-thirds by 

 one-half of an inch; in a large number examined, little "runt" eggs are 

 sometimes found. One of these before me measures only 0.54 by 0.47, 

 and I have seen still smaller ones ; such are doubtless not fertilized, and 

 correspond to the little eggs that fowls and pigeons often drop at the 

 close of their season, indicating that their power is exhausted. I have 

 seen the same thing in the case of the Barn Swallow, and it is probably 

 not an infrequent occurrence. 



On entering a patch of rushes where the Wrens are breeding, we al- 

 most instantly hear the harsh screeping notes with which those nearest 

 scold us, in«vehement and angry resentment at the intrusion. From 

 further away in the maze of reeds we hear a merry little song from those 

 still undisturbed, 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. Their postures are sometimes very comical; a 

 favorite attitude is with the tail thrown up till it almost covers the back, 

 and the head lowered. In this position they have a peculiar swaying 

 motion, back and forward, as if they were on a pivot, and in this posi- 

 tion they sing most frequently. 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 irasci- 

 bility, and not seldom quite beyond such moderate limit ; but on the 

 whole they form a harmonious little colony which minds its own bu- 

 siness, and doubtless makes pleasant company for the blackbirds and 

 other larger species which build among them. 



CISTOTHORUS STELLAEIS, (Licht.) Cab. 



Short-billed Marsh Wren. 



a. stellaris. 



Troglodytes stellaris, Licht.— NaU3I., Y. D. iii, 1823, 724.— Tkii'PB, Pr. Ess. Inst, vi, 1871, 

 115 (Minnesota, abundant, breeding). 



CiHtothorus stellaris, Cab., Mus. Hein. i, 1851, 77.— Be, B. N. A. 1858, 365; Rev. 1864, 

 146.— SCL., Cat. A, B. 1861, 22.— Hayd., Rep. 1862, 163.— Wheat., Ohio Agiic. 

 Eep. 1860, Xo. 124 (Cleveland, breeding).— Code.? &Prent., Smiths. Rep. 1861, 

 410.— Ali.ex, Pr. Ess. Inst, iv, 1864, 83.— Lawr., Ann. Lye. N. Y. viii, 1866, 

 283.~C6nES, Pr. Ess. Inst, v, 1868, 279.— CouES, Pr. Bost. Soo. xii, 1868, 108.— 

 SOMICH., Mem. Bost. Soc. i, 1869, 545 (Orizaba).- CoUES, Pr. Phila. Acad. 1871, 

 21.— Allen, BuU. M. C. Z. ii, 1871. 167.— Tkippe, Pr. Bost. Soc. xv, 1872, 236 

 (Iowa, breeding).- CouES, Key, 1872, 88.— Mayn., Guide, 1870, 96 ; B. Fla. 1872, 

 43.— Snow, B. Kans. 1873, 6. 



Thrijothorus stellaris, Tdrnb., B. E. Pa. 1869, 20. 



Troglodytes brevirostris, Nutt.. Man. i, 1832, 436 ; Tr. Am. Acad. Sci. i, 1833, 98. — AuD., 

 0. B. ii, 1834, 427 ; v, 18.39, 469 ; pi. 175 ; Syn. 1839, 77 ; B. Am. ii, 1841, 138, pi. 

 134.— Bp., Consp. i, 1850, 222. 



b. elegans. 



Cistothorus elegans, ScL. & Salv., Ibis, 1859, 8.— Bd., Rev. 1864, 146. 



Hah. — Eastern Province of the United States. Observed west to the Loup Fork of 

 the Platte (Hayden). North to Massachusetts and Manitoba (Coues). Breeds through- 

 out its range. Winters in the Southern States. Mexico. Var. elegans from Mexico to 

 Guatemala. 



Lieutenant Warren's -E'i<3'e^fW&*^7^^j[)l«<:y^(J'gJ^^Cflf(gie Platte. 



Not obtained by the otherExpeaitions. 



