January, 1893.] 



ANl 



After a drive of five miles and a 

 nWht's rest, on the 39tli I was in 

 trim for worlc, and after breakfasi 

 started out. The first thing to be 

 was to examine the two nests my f 

 had found, which were both in the 

 thicket about two hundred yards a 

 The first nest contained four eggs o 

 Warbler and one of the Cowbird. V 

 it was found it contained two eggs o; 

 Warbler and the Cowbird. I did nol 

 turb this nest as I was going to stay 

 the next day. The second nest was a 

 half finished, but my friend declared 

 there had been nothing added to it 1 

 he found it, but on June 9th lie took 

 of five fresh eggs from it. 



Our next find was a nest contain in| 

 fresh eggs in a small thicket on edg 

 a wood where I never found a pair b( 

 and have been hunting over the ^ 

 ground for the past ten years. This 

 a grand surprise as I had never fou 

 nest containing more than five eggs, t 

 seemed as if this was my lucky day 

 made up of surprises, for after packing 

 six little beauties safely in my bo?i| 

 started again and after a tramp of ai 

 mile we entered a heavy wood ; after tra 

 ing through it for some distance we c 

 to a small stream of water and a clear 

 containing about an eighth of an acre, 1 

 a few raspberry vines scattered about. 



As we entered the clear spot what 

 our surprise to hear the notes of the B 

 wing above our heads. It took us b 

 moment to find the nest which contai 

 three fresh eggs. I left them and j 

 friend secured the nest and five eggs 

 me on June 2d. After leaving this 

 and tramping another half mile or n 

 we came to an old breeding site where 

 the past three years we have found a 

 of this species. The site is a narrow d 

 of ground between the last furrow C 

 ploughed field and an old worn fence 

 viding the field from a large wood, covi 



January, 1S93.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



gregate in the two places before men- 

 tioned, where the grass does not grow 

 much over two feet in height and is not at 

 all thick or rank. At this time of the 

 year, with a little patience, almost any 

 number of nests can be found. 



In choosing a nesting site they {stel- 

 Jaris) do not seem to be at all influenced 

 by the position of the streams, as some of 

 their nests were within ten feet of the 

 flowing water, while others were as much 

 as fifty yards off in the marsh, with abso- 

 lutely nothing to indicate their where- 

 abouts. 



The construction of the nests seems to 

 be as different in the two species as their 

 location, but neither ever use any mud. 

 The Long-bills' nest is a very bulky piece 

 of work and is composed externally of the 

 soft pieces of the dead, coarse grass that 

 it finds on the hummocks where it builds, 

 while the other uses the fine grass before 

 described, taking the fresh green grass for 

 the outside and the softer dead grass for 

 the inside next to the lining, and makes a 

 much smaller nest. This makes the nest 

 of the latter much more difficult to find, 

 as it is of the same color of the surround- 

 ing grass. 



Both birds build from two to six decoy 

 nests to the best of my belief, for each pair 

 seems to have a smaller area of the marsh 

 to themselves for building purposes, and 

 the number of nests in each "bunch" 

 varies between these two figures. I think 

 that one reason for these decoy nests being 

 built may be for convenience in the event 

 of the first nest being robbed or destroyed, 

 as I have taken a set of eggs from a nest 

 and a week or so later, on going to a decoy 

 nest close by the position of the old one, 

 found three fresh eggs in it. 



The lining materials are the same for 

 both birds, but vary considerably, as it is 

 in some nests of very fine grasses, others 

 entirely of feathers, while othei's will be 

 lined with the silky tufts of that variety of 



tufted grass which is so common in every 

 meadow. 



The Short-billed Marsh Wren has a 

 curious habit of often pulling to pieces any 

 nest that has been handled, whether decoy 

 or otherwise, so long as it has not begun 

 laying in it, for I have repeatedly placed 

 a stick a few feet from the nest with the 

 bearing noted, only to find the nest gone 

 afterwards except for a sort of thin skele- 

 ton of grass. 



If the nest contains a set of eggs I do 

 not think it is possible to make them de- 

 sert, as the two following incidents will 

 show. 



On June i, 1S92, 1 collected a nest con- 

 taining six eggs, but, for some reason, I 

 did not have an egg-box (I cannot under- 

 stand how it happened), so I left the eggs 

 in the nest and laid it, entrance up, on the 

 hummock from which it had been cut, 

 and began to search for other nests further 

 off in the marsh. In about half an hour 

 I returned, walking rather carefully in 

 order not to overlook it or step on it. 

 Just as I reached the edge of the little 

 clearing of trampled grass and saw the 

 nest, the bird jumped out of it and flew 

 away. I felt meaner for taking that nest 

 than for all the others I have taken put 

 together. I do not know whether she 

 would have hatched the eggs or not, but 

 she must have been on the nest for some 

 time before being frightened away, as the 

 eggs were perfectly warm. 



In the other case my brother found a 

 nest on July 16 containing seven eggs, 

 and, wishing to show it to a friend just as 

 it stood, stopped the entrance with a small 

 plug of grass. On July 34 he visited it 

 again and found that the top had been 

 hollowed out, enlarged and lined, so as to 

 make another perfect nest just above the 

 first one ; the second compartment con- 

 tained three eggs. Foolishly enough, we 

 left the nest to see if any more eggs would 

 be laid, but on visiting it two days later, 



