The Oologist. 



Vol. XXIII. No. 9. 



Albion, N. Y., Sep., 1906. 



Whole No. 230 



THE OOLOGIST, 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 

 OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 

 FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 

 ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 

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ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager, 

 Chili, Monroe Co.. N. Y. 



LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



(Telmatodytes palustris) in Philadel- 

 phia County, Penn. 



By R. P. MILLER. (Concluded), 

 watching him from an exposed stalk 

 or blade of a rush, or a weed, with 

 chuckling or chattering cries. Their 



fearlessness often leads to their death 

 from boys who cannot resist the temp- 

 tation to "heave" a rock or stone at 

 the brave bird. 



The eggs of the Long-illed Marsh 

 Wren range from five to nine in num- 

 ber, according to Davies, but seven 

 is the highest number I have ever 

 found in a set, out of an examination 

 of over 300 nests. Five or six is the 

 usual number, sometimes four and 

 rarely seven. But larger sets, as Da- 

 vies says, have been found. A set 

 of ten I recall having been heard of. 

 The eggs vary greatly in shape, size 

 and coloration. Shape includes ovate, 

 elongate, short-ovate, broad-ovate, 

 elongate-ovate, sub-spherical, eliptica! 

 ovate,, etc.; color usually a dark choc- 

 olate with considerable variation, the 

 eggs being thickly marked with dark 

 brown, which gives them a uniform 

 chocolate color. Some have been seen 

 streaked with quite distinct longitui- 

 nal lines of pale brown on a shell of 

 whitish; others lightly marked with 

 brown of various shades, with wreaths 

 on large and small ends; some blotch- 

 ed and some almost immaculate. A 

 set of four in my collection contain 

 two uniform chocolate eggs and two 

 almost immaculate ones, which look 

 like eggs of the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat, except that they are more elon- 

 gate in shape. The average size 

 of a large series (over 200 eggs), was 

 .6Gx.46 inches with considerable var- 

 iation, some almost runts. Although 

 never having the good fortune or luck 

 to find a perfectly immaculate set. Such 

 sets do exist in collections, and from 

 what I can learn they are quite dis- 

 tinct in shape from the white eggs of 

 the Short-billed Marsh Wren, whose 



