28 o 
SINGING BIRDS. 
seen, it rears its young in security. I’he song, according to the 
observations of a friend, is very similar to that of the preced- 
ing, —a sort of short, tremulous, and hurried warble. Its 
notes were even yet heard in an island of the Delaware, oppo- 
site to Philadelphia, as late as the month of September, where 
they were still in plenty in this secluded asylum. Towards the 
close of the breeding season the song often falls off into a low, 
guttural, bubbling sound, which appears almost like an effort of 
ventriloquism. 
The nest, according' to Wilson, is generally suspended 
among the reeds and securely tied to them at a sufficient 
height above the access of the highest tides. It is formed of 
wet rushes well intertwisted together, mixed with mud, and 
fashioned into the form of a cocoa-nut, having a small orifice 
left in the side for entrance. The principal material of this 
nest, as in the preceding species, is, however, according to 
Audubon, the leaves of the sedge-grass, on a tussock of which 
it also occasionally rests. The young quit the nest about the 
20th of June, and they generally have a second brood in the 
course of the season. From the number of empty nests found 
in the vicinity of the residence of the Marsh Wren, it is 
pretty evident that it is also much employed in the usual 
superfluous or capricious labor of the genus. The pugnacious 
character of the males, indeed, forbids the possibility of so 
many nests being amicably occupied in the near neighborhood 
in which they are commonly found. 
Tliis Wren is common in suitable localities in Massachusetts, but 
has not been found fartlier northward. It occurs westward to the 
Pacific, and south (in winter) to the Gulf States. It appears on 
Canadian territory only in southern Ontario and Manitoba. 
Note. — Mr. W. E. D. Scott discovered at Tarpon Springs, Flor- 
ida, in 1888, a Wren that resembles palustris, but differs in having 
bars on the upper and under tail-coverts ; also the brown color has 
a more decided tinge of olive than of rufous. Mr. Scott has named 
the bird, in honor of his wife, Marian’s Marsh Wren {Cisto- 
thorua mariance). It is common along the southwestern coast of 
I'lorida. 
