370 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



232. Cistothorus stellaris (Licht.). 

 Short-billed Marsh Wren. 



Formerly a locally common summer resident, now of infrequent occurrence, chiefly dur- 

 ing migration. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 6, 1882, one taken, Belmont, C. R. Lamb. 



May 12 — September 25. 

 October 9, 1875, one im. female '■ taken, Fresh Pond Marshes, W. Brewster. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 25 — June 10. 



Nuttall says ^ that the Short-billed Marsh Wren "arrives in this part of 

 Massachusetts about the close of the first week in May," and that the songs of 

 the males " may, for about a month from their arrival, be heard pleasantly echo- 

 ing on a fine morning from the borders of every low marsh and wet meadow, 

 provided with tussucks of sedge-grass." Believing the bird to be undescribed, 

 he named it Troglodytes brevirostris . He also gave a full and admirable 

 account of its habits, song, nest and eggs. The passages above quoted indicate 

 that he met with it in considerable numbers and probably in more than one 

 locality, although there can be little doubt that his observations were made 

 chiefly in the Fresh Pond Marshes, where the Cabots also found the species 

 breeding between 1832 and 1840. 



During the earlier years of my own experience from five or six to ten or a 

 dozen pairs of these Wrens nested every season in the wide, open meadows lying 

 just to the northward of the Glacialis and in those immediately about Beech 

 Island. This portion of the Fresh Pond Marshes was then comparatively dry 

 in summer and covered with the fine, wiry kind of grass in which, the Short- 

 billed Marsh Wrens are given to concealing their nests; but, about 1885, during 

 a protracted drought, fires burned deep into the peaty ground, destroying the 

 original vegetation, which was afterwards largely replaced by rank growths of 

 cattail flags. Since this change took place the Short-billed Marsh Wren has 



1 No. 2058, collection of William Brewster. 



2 T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Land Birds, 

 1832, 437, 438- 



