Concord, Mass.
1893
July 23
(No 2)
of the nest taken at Canton June 10th also came
about us with a similar whitish object in her bill. At
the time we supposed her to be feeding young of the first
brood but I am very sure there were no young in this
Heath Bridge meadow yesterday.
[margin]Cistothorus
stellaris[/margin]
  It was perfectly easy to see the eggs in this nest - or at
least most of them - by merely bending the nest over
so that the sunlight could shine in. They looked
very transparent and had a decided rosy tinge.  I 
rolled them out of the nest just as I always roll out
Long bill's eggs and with perfect success although Bowles
considers it a dangerous experiment. The shells of these
eggs although thinner than those of the Long-bill's were
decidedly thicker than the shell of a Warbler's egg. They
had a slight polish before they were blown.
  At Pantry Brook yesterday I noticed that each
male Wren occupied or rather monopolized an area
of several acres no two male birds singing nearer each other
than about 200 yards. Faxon thinks, &[and] no doubt correctly,
that the scarcity of birds in this meadow this season
is due to [the] fact that the meadow was entirely under
water at about the time of their arrival forcing
them to choose breeding grounds elsewhere. This theory
will also explain their total absence this season on
the Great Meadows below Concord.
  A female Short-bill on Pantry Brook Meadow yesterday
came very near me hovering over the grass & dropping
into it uttering a scolding churrr or sometimes a low
chip or chup. I looked vainly for a nest but started
two full grown birds which I took to be young.
The great difficulty is hit upon the immediate vicinity
of the nest in such a sea of grass. I found no decoy nests.