browned coffee. The ordinary ground-color is about like that of the common clay marble called “commie.” 
The markings consist of spots and speckles, often confluent, of a deeper shade of the ground color. 
Some eggs are unmarked. Others are thickly and evenly marked over the entire surface. Some 
have a well-defined, some a faint wreath of confluent marks about the crown, while others have the 
wreath about the smaller end. Some have the marks very fine and indistinct, others moderately large 
and bold. The various shades of ground-color and the different markings combine to make an endless 
variety of patterns in these eggs. But, notwithstanding this great diversity, there is an indescribable 
something about them which suggests, upon sight, to the experienced oologist, their parentage. Eggs 
from the same set generally show considerable uniformity in coloring and also in size. The shell is 
sometimes highly polished, sometimes dull. 
Ten sets of eggs, collected by Mr. J. B. Porter, of Glendale, Ohio, near Port Clinton, Ottawa county, 
give an average size of .50 x .65. The largest measures .50 x .70; the smallest, .49 x .60 of an inch. 
The greatest long-diameter is .70; the least long-diameter is .60. The greatest short-diameter is .51; 
the least short-diameter is .48. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS: 
See differential points under “ House Wren.” 
REMARKS : 
Plate XLVI represents a nest and three eggs of the Long-billed Marsh Wren, taken in Ottawa 
county, by Mr. J. B. Porter, in 1880. The specimen had been in his cabinet about two years before it 
was drawn. The entrance is figured opened, as it can thus more readily be seen. The eggs show the 
usual sizes, shapes, and markings, the center one being the commonest pattern. 
Mr. Porter, to whom I am much indebted for information regarding the breeding habits of the 
species, found these birds plenty in the marshes about Sandusky Bay, in 1880, and, in company with 
Or. Langdon, examined a good many nests. Every ornithologist has noted the fact that but few nests 
of the whole number found contain eggs, and many guesses have been made to account for the construc- 
tion of so many useless houses. Mr. Porter found eggs in about every third nest, and noted that those 
which contained eggs were somewhat more compactly built than the others. 
The Wrens seem to have sentinels all about their breeding grounds, -whose duty it is to give the 
alarm (a squeaky little note), on the approach of danger. When once the alarm is sounded, it is carried 
from one to another, until every bird is aroused. This habit makes it very difficult to catch the birds 
in or even near their nests. Dr. Coues, in “Northwestern Ornithology,” says: “On entering a patch of 
rushes where the Wrens are breeding, we almost instantly hear the harsh, scraping notes with which 
those nearest scold us, in vehement and angry resentment against the intrusion. From further away in 
the maze of reeds we hear a merry little song from those still undisturbed, and presently we see 
numbers flitting on feeble wing from one clump of sedge to another, or poised in any imaginable attitude 
on the swaying stems. . . . Others may be seen scrambling like little mice up and down the reed- 
stems or all over their globular nests. They appear among themselves to be excitable to the verge of 
irascibility, and not seldom quite beyond such moderate limit ; but on the whole they form a harmo- 
nious little colony which minds its own business, and doubtless Makes pleasant company for the Black- 
birds and other larger species which build among them.” 
158 
