WRENS 121 



brush-piles or similar retreats, and his nervous chimp, 

 chimp, as with cocked-up tail he hops into view for a 

 second, is like the call of the Song Sparrow rather than the 

 scolding note of most Wrens; nor does his rippling, trick- 

 ling song resemble the House Wren's sudden outburst. 



The nest is built in the roots of a tree or similar location. 

 The s - 7 eggs, laid in early June, are white, finely, bui 

 rather sparingly speckled with brownish. 



SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN 

 Cistolhorus stellaris. Case 8, Fig. 80 



Smallest of our Wrens; the head and back streaked with white. 

 L.4. 



Range. Nests from central Missouri and northern Delaware 

 to Saskatchewan and southern Maine; winters from southern 

 Illinois and southern New Jersey to the Gulf. 



Washington, very rare T, V., two instances. May. Ossining, 

 rare S. R., to Oct. 16. Cambridge, formerly locally common 

 S. R., May 12-Sept. 25; now chiefly T. V. N. Ohio, rare, May 

 13, 14, 16 and 19. Glen Ellyn, fairly common S. R., May 8- 

 Oct. 17. SB. Minn., common S. R., May 13-Sept. 19. 



Although we have only six species of Wrens in the eastern 

 United States, they are so unlike in their choice of haunts 

 that few localities which will afford them the hiding places 

 they all love are without one or more of them. The 

 House and Bewick's Wrens make their homes near ours; 

 the Carolina and Winter Wrens prefer the woods; the 

 Long-billed Marsh Wren's haunts have given him his 

 name, and if we should call the present species Meadow 

 Wren, its home would be similarly indicated, for it lives 

 in wet, grassy places rather than among the cat-tails. 



Ernest Seton describes its note as resembling the sound 

 produced by striking two pebbles together, while its song 

 is a series of chaps, running into chap-r-r-rrr. The 

 globular nest is built on the ground, and the 6-8 eggs, laid 

 in May, are usually pure white. 



