6 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 1 



the bird for a time may be able to eltide 

 you completely. But at last, after much 

 patient work, you will have the game just 

 where • you want it. You can name the 

 bird, you know its habits, all about its 

 mating and nesting, the size and color of 

 its eggs, where it builds and what it eats. 

 You have tried to catch the meaning of its 

 various calls and songs with fair success. 

 Its form and color are indelibly fixed in 

 the mind and the bird has almost become 

 to you a veritable possession. 



The work undertaken has been accom- 

 plished ; yet, notwithstanding all this, a 

 new field of labor of large proportions 

 opens before you. The many evidences of 

 intelligence and reason will now occupy 

 your mind. The results of previous study 

 must become manifest. The real harvest 

 period has arrived, and it ought to be 

 fruitful. 



After having made the acquaintance of 

 our Winter birds, the Spring migrations 

 will be looked for with \ considerable 

 pleasure. , \ 



The Grow will probably show the first 

 indicatibns of discontent. Havjng made 

 some ob.servations diu-ing the pai^t season 

 (1882) on the mooted question as, to the 

 migrations of Crows, I propose 'in the 

 next article to give facts and figures 'Rear- 

 ing; on this point. — G. B. 0., JVorwich^\^Ct. 



Long-billed Marsh Wren. 



" There is much in a. name," and if we 

 judge in this instance by the length, we 

 might expect to see an enormous bird Uke 

 the fabulous " Eoc," and were it not for 

 our dislike of change of names and trouble 

 in definitions, we would suggest an ex- 

 change. But what these little visitors lack 

 in size they make up in numbers. They 

 come late in April or in the early part of 

 May and spread over the salt marshes 

 from Florida to Massachusetts ; and on the 

 Jersey coast one could count hundreds of 

 nests in an afternoon. Their song is not 

 sweet, for they utter a harsh cry, compared 



by some to the noise of some large insect, 

 like the cricket or katy-did. They are 

 active and full of alarms, and the word 

 that enemies are at hand passes along the 

 line with great rapidity, so that it seldom^ 

 happens that they are surprised in their 

 nests, although they are impervious to the 

 light. Sentinels are ever on guard. Late 

 in April, or early in May,, the flight of the 

 pigmies commence, and they scatter along 

 the creeks and speedily take possession of 

 any bush or bunch of reeds or grass upon 

 the meadows, from twenty to fif tj^ feet apart, 

 and commence to make a round or globtxlar 

 nest, about the size and shape of a cocoa- 

 nut, a foot or two above the ground, weav- 

 ing in the long grasses in a very weaver- 

 like manner around the standing reeds, 

 and occasionally sto^Dping up the interstices 

 with mud. 



The interior is lined with finer grass,, 

 feathers, or other soft substances. The 

 opening is not visible but is concealed so^ 

 nicely with grass that even a mosquito 

 could not find its way in. The Marsh 

 Wren, like others of the Wren family, 

 from Sii' Christopher down, have been fa- 

 mous as architects, and we have no nests 

 in our collection more admired, or that show 

 more skill than those of the Marsh Wren, 

 woven in a group of cat-tails. I am in- 

 fdhiied that an occasional nest is found in 

 the overhanging branches of trees, but 

 have never met with such. Their second 

 nests are built among the full-grown reeds, 

 and a nest with a few cat-tails woven in and 

 standing out from the top is quite a curi- 

 ous affair. The eggs are very small, pretty 

 uniform in size and shape, but varying 

 much in color, from a blueish white ground 

 to a dark chocolate color, and more or less 

 blotched. The eggs in one nest are gen- 

 erally nearly alike in color, although we oc- 

 casionally find some very dissimilar in the 

 same nest. The number varies from foirr 

 to six. In himdreds of nests I have never 

 found the latter number exceeded, averag- 

 ing five. 



Jan. 1883.] 



AND 0; 



The birds themselves are brown and 

 white, of various shadings, and their httle 

 short tails are raised over their backs. 

 Sometimes old nests are found occupied, 

 but not often. They make two nests in a 

 season. Their food consists of insects, or 

 their chrysalis, &c., and locating as they do 

 where the mosquitoes sometimes number 

 100 to the square inch, they would have 

 no trouble in filling their crops, provided 

 such food was desired. They do use the 

 mosquito before its change from its chrys- 

 alis, as these are found in their stomachs. 

 They care little for the birds of prey after 

 the reeds have grown, as they can escajae 

 among them where the large birds cannot 

 follow. But early in the season many fall 

 victims to their pursuers. Were it not for 

 this, the increase would be more than could 

 be accommodated, even on these vast 

 meadows. Being too insignificant to shoot, 

 and their plumage not brilliant enough for 

 ladies' bonnets, &c., they escape the guns 

 of the boys. I have known a collector to 

 obtain 400 to 500 eggs in a day, and have 

 myself added several hundred to the stock 

 of eggs for exchange, thus reducing the 

 valuation of Wrens' eggs; yet I see no 

 diminution in the numbers of the birds in 

 the same locality. But their sharp little 

 voices sound harshly in my ears when I 

 think how many pairs of birds I have ren- 

 dered miserable in my efforts to build up a 

 collection of eggs. — J3. B. Haines, Mliza- 



beth, mJ^^^ 



O. & O. ^4lWa& 188 3 . p . 6 



