Species IV. CERT HI A PALUSTRIS. 
MAKSH WREN. 
[Plate XII. Fig. 4.] 
MotaciUa palusiris [regulus minor), Bartram, p. 291. 
This obscure but spirited little species has been almost overlooked 
by the naturalists of Europe, as Avell as by those of its own country. 
The singular attitude in which it is represented will be recognised by 
those acquainted with its manners, as one of its most common and 
favorite ones, while skipping through 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 Nympliea, 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 larv?e, 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 Schuylkill or Delaware, in the month of June, you hear 
a low crackling sound, something similar to that produced by air bub- 
bles forcing their way through 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 everything, and yet each, perhaps, 
has something peculiarly his own ; so among birds we find a like dis- 
tribution of talents and peculiarities. The little bird now before us, 
if deficient and contemptible in singing, excels in the art of design, and 
constructs a nest, which, in durability, warmth and convenience, is 
scarcely inferior to one, and far superior to many, of its more musical 
brethren. This is formed outwardly of wet rushes mixed with mud, 
well intertwisted, and fashioned into the form of a cocoa nut. A small 
hole is left two-thirds up, for entrance, the upper edge of which projects 
like a pent house over the lower, to prevent the admission of rain. The 
inside is lined with fine soft grass, and sometimes feathers ; and the 
outside, when hardened by the sun, resists every kind of weather. 
This nest is generally suspended among the reeds, above the reach of 
the highest tides, and is tied so fast in every part to the surrounding 
reeds, as to bid defiance to the winds and the waves. The eggs are 
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