58 



MARSH WREN. 

 CERTHIA PALUSTJSIS. 

 [Plate XII.— Fig. 4.] 



Lath. Sz/rt. Siippl p. 24>4. — Motacilla palustris {reguliis minor), Bartram, p. 291. — 



Peale's Museum, JVo. 7282. 



THIS obscure but spirited little species has been almost over- 

 looked by the naturalists of Europe, as well as by those of its own 

 country. The singular attitude in which it is represented will be 

 recognized by those acquainted with its manners, as one of its 

 most common and favorite ones, while skipping thro among the 

 reeds and rushes. The Marsh Wren arrives in Pennsylvania about 

 the middle of May, or as soon as the reeds and a species of nym- 

 phea, usually called splatter-docks, which grow in great luxuriance 

 along the tide water of our rivers, are sufficiently high to shelter 

 it. To such places it almost wholly limits its excursions, seldom 

 venturing far from the river. Its food consists of flying insects, 

 and their larvae, and a species of green grasshoppers that inhabit 

 the reeds. As to its notes it would be mere burlesque to call them 

 by the name of song. Standing on the reedy borders of the Schuyl- 

 kill or Delaware, in the month of June, you hear a low crackling 

 sound, something similar to that produced by air bubbles forcing 

 their way thro mud or boggy ground when trod upon ; this is the 

 song of the Marsh Wren. But as among the human race it is not 

 given to one man to excel in every thing, and yet each, perhaps, 

 has something peculiarly his own; so among birds we find a like 

 distribution of talents and peculiarities. The little bird now be- 

 fore us, if deficient and contemptible in singing, excels in the art 

 of design, and constructs a nest, which, in durability, warmth and 



