i 4 o IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



Radclyffe Dugmore has photographed a nest in a 

 wild-rose bush. I have found their nests in alders 

 frequently, and by no means always near the ground. 

 But, as a general thing, they are low builders, and 

 often hang their woven baskets of coarse grass 

 lined with hair between three or four cattail leaves 

 or reed stalks, directly over water. 



The marsh-wrens build a more elaborate nest — 

 or rather, they build several nests. If you find one, 

 you are almost sure to find others near by, some of 

 them, it may be, not finished, some quite com- 

 pleted. They are all built, however, by the same 

 pair of birds, the general theory being that it is done 

 to confuse their enemies. The nest is an inter- 

 esting construction, rather globular in shape, woven 

 of fine reeds and grasses in and out among the tall 

 reed stalks which support it, so that these stalks 

 are incorporated into its structure. Sometimes it 

 resembles in shape a huge Bartlett pear impaled on 

 a bunch of cattail spikes. The entrance is always 

 in the side. If it is the long-billed marsh-wren 

 whose nest you are after, you will probably fare ill 

 without hip rubber boots — and possibly then ! The 

 smaller, short-billed marsh-wren, however, often 

 builds a similar nest (with much whiter eggs) on 

 drier ground beside the swamp, rather than directly 

 over the water. Both varieties have the jolly wren 

 quality of bustle, and go chattering and scolding 

 about on the cattail tops, often gathering the 

 fluffy seeds of last year's blossoms to line their 

 nests with. 



It is often but a step from the swamp where the 

 red-wings and the marsh-wrens build to the open 



