138 



SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



-f Troglodytes brevirostris, Nutt. 

 PLATE CXXIV Male, Female, and Nest. 



I hope, kind reader, you will approve of the liberty which I have taken 

 in prefixing the name of my friend Nuttall to the present species, which 

 was discovered by his indefatigable and enthusiastic devotion to science, in a 

 country where Wilson, Bonaparte, Bachman, Pickering, Cooper, Sat, 

 and others had already exerted themselves to the utmost in their endeavours 

 to complete its diversified and interesting Fauna. I hope, too, that you will 

 allow me to present you with the history of this sweet little inhabitant of 

 our freshwater marshes, as given by him. 



"This amusing and not unmusical little species inhabits the lowest marshy 

 meadows, but does not frequent the reed flats. It never visits cultivated 

 grounds, and is at all times shy, timid, and suspicious. It arrives in this 

 part of Massachusetts about the close of the first week in May, and retires to 

 the south by the middle of September at farthest, probably by night, as 

 it is never seen in progress, so that its northern residence is only prolonged 

 about four months. 



"Its presence is announced by its lively and quaint song of tsh, tship, 0, 

 day, day, day, day, delivered in haste and earnest at short intervals, either 

 when he is mounted on a tuft of sedge, or while perched on some low bush 

 near the skirt of the marsh. The tsh, tship, is uttered with a strong aspira- 

 tion, and the remainder with a guttural echo. While thus engaged, his head 

 and tail are alternately depressed and elevated, as if the little odd performer 

 were fixed on a pivot. Sometimes the note varies to tschip, tschip, tshia, 

 dh, dh, dh, dh, the latter part being a pleasant trill. 



"When approached too closely, which not often happened, as he permitted 

 me to come within two or three feet of his station, his song becomes harsh 

 and more hurried, like tship, da, da, da, and de, de, de, de, d, d, dh, or tshe, 

 de, de, de, de, rising into an angry petulant cry, which is also sometimes a 

 low hoarse and scolding daigh, daigh. Then again on invading the nest, 

 the sound sinks to a plaintive tsh, tship, tsh, tship. In the early part of 

 the breeding season, the male is very lively and musical, and in his best 

 humour he tunes up a tship, tship, tship, a dee, with a pleasantly warbled 

 and reiterated de. At a later period, another male uttered little else than a 



