MARSH WREN. 135 
ster he mentions, are two very distinct species , and that both the one 
and the other actually build very curious, pendulous nests. 
This species is five inches and a half long, and seven inches in ex 
tent; crown, ash, slightly tinged with olive, bordered on each side with 
a line of black, below which is a line of white passing from the nostril 
over and a little beyond the eye; the bill is longer than usual with 
birds of its tribe, the upper mandible overhanging the lower consid 
erably, and notched, dusky above, and light blue below; all the rest 
of the plumage above is of a yellow olive, relieved on the tail, and at 
the tips of the wings, with brown; chin, throat, breast, and belly, pure 
white ; inside of the wings and vent-feathers, greenish yellow; the 
tail is very slightly forked; legs and feet, light blue; iris of the eye, 
red. The female is marked nearly in the same manner. and is distin- 
guishable only by the greater obscurity of the colors. 
MARSH WREN.—CERTHIA PALUSTRIS. — Fie. 50. 
Lath. Syn. Suvpl. p. 244.—Motacilla palustris, (regulus minor,) Bartram, p. 291. 
— Peule’s Museum, No. 7282. 
TROGLODYTES PALUSTRIS. — Bonaparte. 
Troglodytes palustris, Bonap. Synop. p.93.—The Marsh Wren, Aud. pl. 100. 
Fe EY Oma. Bhog. cp. Udon, Doel. i. p. 48. J 
Turis obscure but spirited little species has been almost overlooked 
by the naturalists of Europe, as well as by those of its own country. 
The singular attitude in which it is represented will be recognized, by 
those acquainted with its manners, as one of its most common and 
favorite ones, while skipping through among the reeds and rushes. 
The Marsh Wren arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle of May, or 
as soon as the reeds and a species of nymphea, usually called splatter- 
docks, which grow in great luxuriance along the tide water of our 
rivers, are sufficiently high to shelter it. To such places it almost 
wholly limits its excursions, seldom venturing far from the river. Its 
food consists of flying insects, and their larve, and a species of green 
grasshoppers that inhabit the reeds. As to its notes, it would be mere 
burlesque to call them by the name of song. Standing on the reedy 
borders of the Schuy!kill or Delaware, in the month of June, you hear 
a low, crackling sound, something similar to that produced by air bub- 
bles forcing their way through mud cr boggy ground when trod upon; 
this is the song of the Marsh Wren. But as, among the human race, 
it is not given to one man to excel in every thing, and yet each, per- 
haps, has something peculiarly his own, so, among birds, we find a 
like distribution of talents and peculiarities. The little bird now be- 
fore us, if deficient and contemptible in singing, excels in the art of 
design, and constructs a nest, which, in durability warmth, and conve- 
