Breeding habits of the marsh wrens
MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
1857
June 26 [June 26, 1875] Clear and cool with E. [East] wind. Off after breakfast
striking up to the Block is meadow [Block Island meadow] where
I searched a long time for marsh wrens
nest. Finally found one of C. palustris [Cistothorus palustris]
with 5 fresh eggs. The birds were quite 
plenty and almost everywhere when I
found a [male] singing I quickly discovered
several false nests. In one place I found
4 within an area of ten yards. Some even
built in the top of a tussock, others among
coarse saw grass or flags, all very conspicuous
and lined with mud. The nest containing 
the eggs was suspended between the stalks of
some rather fine grasses and lined
with fine grass, a little down, and a 
few feathers. It was quite as conspicuous 
as any of the false ones, and within
ten yards was one of that description. 
The male begins to scold as soon as you
approach any of the nests and I think
his mate leaves her eggs at the first alarm
as I shot a [female] in another place, which had
evidently been incubating a long time, but
which flew out of the meadow when her
mate signaled my presence, and took to
a thicket of alders on a hill side. C. stellaris [Cistothorus stellaris]
was also abundant in the same meadow &
I shall try again for their nests. The song
of C. palustris [Cistothorus palustris] varies but the most common
version is crik rick, a-rick-a-rick-a-rick. In P.M. visited
the spot in Waltham where with Bailey I saw
a pair of Vireo solitarius on the 15th [June 15, 1875].
Searching a little while I found it suspended
from a maple twig 7 ft up and 3 from the trunk
of the tree. The [female] was sitting and at