MARSH WREN. 



207 



the West India bird, build a pendulous nest." Had the 

 learned professor, however, examined into this matter with 

 his usual accuracy, he would have found, that the Muscicapa 

 olivacea, and the soft and tender songster 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 extent; 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 considerably, 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 distinguishable only by the 

 greater obscurity of the colours. 



MARSH WEEK (Certhia palustris.) 



PLATE XII— Fig. 4. 



Lath. Syn. Suppl. p. 244. — Motacilla palustris (regulus minor), Bartram, p. 291. 

 —Peale's Museum, No. 7282. 



TROGLOD YTES PALUSTRIS. —Bonaparte . 



Troglodytes palustris, JBonap. Si/nop. p. 93.— The Marsh Wren, Aud. pi. 100, 

 Orn. Biog. i. p. 500.— North. Zool. ii. p. 319. 



This 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 recognised, by those acquainted with its 

 manners, as one of its most common and favourite ones, while 

 skipping through among the reeds and rushes. The marsh 



