74 
MARSH WREN. 
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 usually six, of a dark fawn colour, 
and very small. The young leave the nest about the twentieth 
of June, and they generally have a second brood in the same 
season. 
The size, general colour, and habit of this bird of erecting its 
tail, gives it, to a superficial observer, something of the appear- 
ance of the common House Wren, represented in Plate VIII of 
this work; and still more that of the Winter Wren, figured in 
the same plate; but with the former of these it never associates; 
and the latter has left us some time before the Marsh Wren 
makes his appearance. About the middle of August they begin 
to go off, and on the first of September very few of them are to 
be seen. How far north the migrations of this species extend I 
am unable to say; none of them to my knowledge winter in 
Georgia, or any of the southern states. 
The Marsh Wren is five inches long, and six in extent; the 
whole upper parts are dark brown, except the upper part of the 
head, back of the neck, and middle of the back, which are black, 
the two last streaked with white; the tail is short, rounded, and 
barred with black; wings slightly barred; a broad strip of white 
passes over the eye half way down the neck; the sides of the 
neck are also mottled with touches of a light clay colour on a 
whitish ground; whole under parts pure silvery white, except 
the vent, which is tinged with brown; the legs are light brown; 
the hind claw large, semicircular, and very sharp; bill slender, 
slightly bent; nostrils prominent; tongue narrow, very tapering, 
