286 MARYLAND YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER. 



Common Marsh Wren — to "spend much of their time in 

 quest of insects, chiefly crustaceous, which, with moths, 

 constitute their principal food." 



This species differs from the Common Marsh Wren in its 

 notes; in its shorter bill; in its darker colored breast; in its 

 inhabiting dryer places — its nest never, I think, being placed 

 over water; in the position of its nest, always on or near the 

 ground — being composed of bleached material and very com- 

 pactly made (wrongly figured by Audubon) — and, particu- 

 larly, in its pure white eggs. 



Wintering in the Southern States, the Short-billed Marsh 

 Wren breeds throughout the Eastern United States to New 

 England and Manitoba; but it is not nearly as generally 

 distributed as its cousin of the longer bill. It reaches these 

 middle districts early in May, and leaves early in September. 



MARYLAND YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER. 



Reaching a bog, where, in trying to cross, I sink at 

 every step into an almost bottomless bed of soft moss, I 

 hope to find something new. In respect to plants, I see at 

 once that I shall not be disappointed. Here is the curious 

 pitcher-plant in abundance. Its leaves, having the bowl, 

 handle and spout of a pitcher, are full of water; and its 

 flower, which will appear in a few weeks, will be almost as 

 curious as its leaves. Here too, I find the marvelous little 

 sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, about which the evolutionist, 

 Darwin, has written so much. The little round leaves are 

 thickly beset with transparent bristles, each of which bears 

 on its extremity a viscid globule as clear as a dew-drop. 

 These glandular hairs are said to be sensitive, and to entrap 

 insects, but I cannot make the experiment succeed. 



Around the edge of this bog, among the varied shrubbery 

 belonging almost entirely to the Heath and Rose families. 



