SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
277 
SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
CiSTOTHORUS STELLARIS. 
Char. Above, brown, very dark on crown and back, and streaked 
everywhere with white ; wings and tail with dark bars ; below, butfy 
white, paler on throat and belly; breast and sides shaded with brown. 
Length 4/4 inches. 
Nest. On the ground, amid a tuft of high grass, in fresh-water marsh or 
swampy meadow ; composed of grass, lined with vegetable down. Usu- 
ally the tops of surrounding grass are weaved above the nest, leaving an 
entrance at the side. 
E^gs. 6-8; white; 0.65 X 0.50. 
This amusing and not unmusical little species inhabits the 
lowest marshy meadows, but does not frequent the reed-flats. 
It never visits cultivated grounds, and is at all times shy, timid, 
and suspicious. It arrives in this part of Massachusetts about 
the close of the first week in May, and retires to the South by 
the middle of September at farthest, probably by night, as it is 
never seen in progress, so that its northern residence is only 
prolonged about four months. In winter this bird is seen from 
South Carolina to Texas. 
His presence is announced by his lively and quaint song of 
'tsh 'fship, a day day day day, delivered in haste and earnest 
at short intervals, either when he is mounted on a tuft of 
sedge, or while perching on some low bush near the skirt of 
the marsh. The 'tsh 'tship is uttered with a strong aspiration, 
and the remainder with a guttural echo. While thus engaged, 
his head and tail are alternately depressed and elevated, as if 
the little odd performer were fixed on a pivot. Sometimes the 
note varies to 'iship 'tship 'tshia, dh' dh' dh' dh', the latter 
part being a pleasant trill. When approached too closely, — 
which not often happened, as he never permitted me to come 
within two or three feet of his station, — his song became 
harsh and more hurried, like 'tship da dd dd, and de dc de de 
d' (P dh, or tshc de de de de, rising into an angry, petulant cry, 
sometimes also a low, hoarse, and scolding daigh daigh ; then 
again on invading the nest the sound sank to a plaintive 'tsh 
