NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



475 



722o. WESTEBilT WINTEB WBEN". Troglodytes hiemalis pacificus Balrd. 

 Geog. Dist. — Pacific coast region from Sitka to Souttiern California; south, in winter 

 to Western Mexico; east to Eastern Oregon, Nevada, etc. 



This subspecies breeds from the southern coast ranges of California north to 

 Sitka. Habits, nesting and eggs like those of T. Memalis of the East. Eggs .60x.48. 



723. ALASKAN WBElT. Troglodytes alascensis Baird. Geog. Dist.— Aleutian 

 and Pribilof Islands, Alaska. 



"In a small collection of birds' skins, nests and 

 eggs recently acquired by the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, collected at the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, is 

 the nest and two eggs of the Alaskan Wren ITroglo- 

 dytea parvttlvs var. alascensis), which are believed to 

 be the first ever seen by Naturalists. The nest is 

 quite large and very compactly built, being composed 

 externally of fine moss of a bright green color, inter- 

 woven with fine roots, and lined heavily with hair and 

 feathers. Conspicuous among the latter are the rosy- 

 tipped feathers of the Leucosticte griseinucha. The 

 bairs are rather coarse and white, three to four inches 

 in length, and appear to be hairs of the Polar bear. 

 The nest was obtained in June, 1876, on St. George 



Island, by Mr. W. J. Mclntyre, to whom it was brought T23. Alaskan Wren (From Turner.) 



by a native. It is said to have been placed deep down in the crevices of large rocks, 

 and to have originally contained twelve eggs, all but two of which were broken be- 

 fore they came into Mr. Mclntyre's possession. These measure, respectively, .68 by 

 .51 and .60 by .50. Their general color is dull white, with a very few minute dots of 

 reddish, so few and small as to be easily overlooked." — J. A. Allen, Bull. Nutt. Orn. 

 Club, July, 1877, p. 82. 



724. SHORT-BILLED MABSH WREN. Cistothorus' stellaris (Licht.) G«og. 

 Dist. — ^Eastern United States and Southern British Provinces, west to the Great 

 Plains. Winters in the Gulf States and 

 southward. 



The reedy swamps, fresh water 

 marshes and meadows of Eastern 

 United States are the summer home of 

 the Short-billed Marsh Wren. Breeds 

 abundantly in Western Manitoba, and 

 occasionally in the southern portions of 

 its range, but chiefly north of latitude 

 40°. The late Colonel Goss states that 

 t possibly breeds in Kansas and Messrs. 

 Keyes and Williams gives it as a rather 

 common summer resident of Iowa. Dr. 

 Agersborg has recorded it as a rare 

 breeder in Southeastern Dakota. The 

 Short-billed Marsh Wren Is a summer 

 .•esident of Ohio, but here, as is the case 

 elsewhere, it is not so abundant as the 

 Long-billed species. The nest cor- 

 -esponds to that of the Long-billed, but 

 DO mud is used in its construction. It 

 Is .built in the midst of a tussock of 

 Warse, high grass, the tops of which are 

 ingeniously Interwoven into a coarse 

 and strong covering, spherical in shape, 

 and closed on every side, except one 

 small aperture left for entrance. The 

 rtrong, wiry grass of the tussock is also rai. Sbort-billbd Marsh Wren and Kest f Cheney del.; 



