LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 279 
Buffon. The time of arrival and departure in this species, 
agreeing exactly with the appearance of the Marsh Wren of 
Wilson, appears to prove that it also exists in Pennsylvania 
with the following, whose migration, according to Audubon, is 
more than a month earlier and later than that of our bird. Mr. 
Cooper, however, has not been able to meet with it in the 
vicinity of New York, but Dr. Trudeau found its nest in the 
marshes of the Delaware. 
This Wren occurs throughout the Eastern Province north to 
Massachusetts on the Atlantic, and in the west to Manitoba, breed- 
ing generally north of 40°, and wintering in the Gulf States. It is 
found in eastern Canada only on the marshes near Lake St. Clair. 
LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
CiSTOTHORUS PALUSTRIS. 
Char. Above, dull reddish brown, darker on crown ; back black, 
streaked with white | white line over eyes ; wings and tail with dark bars ; 
below, buffy white, shaded on sides with brown. Length 5 inches. 
Nest. In a salt marsh or reedy swamp of interior, fastened to reeds or 
cat-tails or a small bush ; composed of grass and reeds, sometimes 
plastered with mud, lined with fine grass or feathers. It is bulky and 
spherical in form, the entrance at the side. 
Eggs. 6-10 ; generally so thickly covered with dark-brown spots as to 
appear uniform chocolate with darker spots; 0.65 X 0.50. 
This retiring inhabitant of marshes and the wet and sedgy 
borders of rivers arrives in the Middle States of the Union 
early in April, and retires to the South about the luiddle of 
October. It is scarcely found to the north of the State of 
New York, its place in New England being usually occupied 
by the preceding species, though a few individuals are known 
to breed in the marshes near Cambridge and Boston. 
It is a remarkably active and quaint little bird, skipping 
and diving about with great activity after its insect food and 
their larvge among the rank grass and rushes, near ponds and 
the low banks of rivers, where alone it affects to dwell, laying 
no claims to the immunities of the habitable circle of man, 
but content with its favorite marshes ; neglected and seldom 
