-On 



November i, 1S89, I found two Long-billed Marsh Wrens {Cistolhoru^ 

 falustris), in the Fresh Pond Marshes, Cambridge, several weeks after 

 the migration of this species was supposed to be over. One of them was 

 in full song. I again came upon one of them, Nov. 8, near the same place, 

 and, on examining the close cover formed by the dried and matted cat- 

 tail flags, I began to suspect that a few of these birds might winter there. 

 I again met with one on three successive days in December (Uec. 8, 9 and 

 10) in another part of the same marshes. These days were warm for the 

 season, although the marshes had been frozen over, and the brave little 

 bird was still singing with almost as much ardor as in spring. I next saw 

 the Wren on January 2 and 3, 1890. Wondering whether its presence here 

 in midwinter was an accident or no, I bethought myself of another similar 

 cat-tail swamp in Arlington, near the Medford line, and a visit to this 

 place on January 7 was rewarded by the finding of a Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren there also. This bird I shot on the 13th of January. It proved to 

 be a male — fat and in fine plumage. Its stouiach was still filled with the 

 remains of coleopterous larvae. The bird was again seen in the Fresh Pond 

 marshes on the morning of March 4, when my thermometer registered 

 4"^ F. and about a foot of snow lay on the ground. 



I believe that the Long-billed Marsh Wren has not hitherto been found 

 wintering in the East further north than the Carolinas, but the western race 

 (C. j>. fialiidicola) is said by Cooper (Geol. Surv. Cala. Orn., 1,75) to 

 winter on the Pacific coast as far north as the Columbia River, in marshes 

 overgrown vfiXh tide {Scirj>us palustris). Dr. Mei'rill (Auk, V, 362) also 

 observed that a few passed the winter at Fort Klamath, Oregon, where 

 the winters must be very severe. The role of the lule is played in the East 

 by the cat-tail flags {Typka latifolia and T. angimtlfoUa) . S^VAC* ^'a-fin^ 



j,ijs:.m,oot, 1890.P, . 



