292 LAND BIRDS 



slugs, and dragonflies, besides other insects, and meals 

 were served four times an hour during most of the day. 

 When the young Wrens were twelve days old, my at- 

 tempt to peep into the nest for the last time resulted in 

 a sudden discharge of all its contents, one by one, into 

 the green rushes, where they sat breathless clinging to 

 the thin stems in desperate efiForts to keep right side up. 

 They were entirely feathered and able to pick up food 

 for themselves, but for two weeks more their pretty coax- 

 ing chirps induced the adult Wrens to supply them with 

 marsh tidbits even more frequently than before they left 

 the nest. 



725 o. INTERIOR TULE WREN, OR WESTERN 

 MARSH WREN. — Cistothorus palustris plesius. 



Family : The Wrens, Thrashers, etc. 



Length: About 4.50-5.75. 



Top of head and patch dark brown ; middle of crown light brown ; 

 upper parts buffy brown ; tail heavily and sharply baned with dark ; 

 under parts pale ashy gray. 



Geographical Distribution: From British Columbia south to Mexico, 

 from east side of the Sierra Nevada to Rocky Mountains. 



Calif omia Breeding Range: East of the Sierra Nevada at various lo- 

 calities. Mr. Grinnell mentions Eagle Lake. 



Ifest and Eggs: Like those of tule wren (C. p. paludicola). 



The Western Marsh Wren is the Western representa- 

 tive of the long-billed marsh wren of the East, and is iden- 

 tical in habits with that bird. (See " Nestlings of Forest 

 and Marsh.") 



