290 LAND BIRDS 



California Breeding Range: West of the Sierra Nevada, in suitable 



localities. 

 Breeding Season : June and July. 

 Nest : Large oval ball, attached to tule stems ; composed of wet tules, 



marsh grass, and pond weed matted together ; lined with tule pith and 



dry algae. Entrance at one side. 

 Eggs : 3 to 5 ; pinkish brown, clouded with darker. 



To know the Tule Wren you must go to the tall reeds 

 of a lowland marsh and live for hours each day with him. 

 He will protest with all the force of his little throat 

 against your intrusion and will call all his neighbors to 

 the scene. Clinging to the slender tule, with much tail- 

 bobbing and attitudinizing, he challenges you angrily and, 

 were he as big as he is brave, you would never venture 

 further. His nests are many, all dummy save one, but 

 you will not be able to guess which that one may be. I 

 have examined thirty in one day and found but one occu- 

 pied, and that was the oldest, most tumble-down of the 

 lot. With undiminished vigor he sings and works, car- 

 rying wet marsh vegetation and weaving it among the 

 rushes into a ball many times the size of his industrious 

 little self. His mate is already brooding in one of those 

 nests which he made last year, but that is no reason, 

 according to his way of thinking, why he should not 

 keep busy making more. So, resting only long enough 

 to satisfy his hunger, he keeps on with his self-appointed 

 task from morning until night, singing as he goes the 

 merriest, maddest medley of banjo-like notes. 



Each nest is lined with pith of the tules, which is 

 exactly like cat-tail down of the East, but the one con- 

 taining the purplish brown eggs is padded very carefully 

 with this material. These nests are conspicuous objects 



