SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. 
139 
hoarse and guttural daigh , hardly louder than the croaking of a frog. When 
approached, they repeatedly descend into the grass, where they spend much 
of their time, in quest of insects, chiefly crustaceous, which, with moths, 
constitute their principal food. Here unseen they still sedulously utter their 
quaint warbling ; and tship, tship , a day , day , day , day , may, for about a 
month from their arrival, be heard pleasantly echoing on a fine morning, from 
the borders of every low marsh and wet meadow, provided with tussocks 
of sedge grass, in which they indispensably dwell, for a time engaged in 
the cares and gratification of raising and providing for their young. 
“ The nest of the Short-billed Marsh Wren is made wholly of dry or partly 
green sedge, bent usually from the top of the grassy tuft in which the fabric 
is situated. With much ingenuity and labour these simple materials are 
loosely entwined together into a spherical form, with a small and rather 
obscure entrance left on the side. A thin lining is sometimes added to the 
whole, of the linty fibres of the silk-weed, or some other similar material. 
The eggs, pure white, and destitute of spots, are probably from six to eight. 
In a nest containing seven eggs, there were three of them larger than the 
rest, and perfectly fresh, while the four smaller were far advanced towards 
hatching. From this circumstance we may fairly infer that two different 
individuals had laid in the same nest, a circumstance more common among 
wild birds than is generally imagined. This is also the more remarkable, 
as the male of this species, like many other Wrens, is much employed in 
making nests, of which not more than one in three or four are ever occupied 
by the females ! 
“The summer limits of this species, confounded with the ordinary Marsh 
Wren, are yet unascertained ; and it is singular to remark how near it 
approaches to another species inhabiting the temperate parts of the southern 
hemisphere in America, namely the Sylvia platensis, figured and indicated 
by Buffon. The description, however, of this bird, obtained by Commer- 
son, on the banks of La Plata, is too imperfect for certainty. It was found 
probably in a marshy situation, as it entered the boat in which he was sailing. 
The time of arrival and departure of this species, agreeing exactly with the 
appearance of the Marsh Wren of Wilson, inclines me to believe that 
it also exists in Pennsylvania.” 
While in New Jersey, in the summer of 1832, after I had become 
acquainted with this species through Nuttall, I spent several days in 
searching the freshwater marhses, often waist-deep in mud, in the hopes of 
procuring it ; but my efforts, as well as those of my friend Edward Harris, 
Esq., and my sons, were unsuccessful. It is very abundant in South Caro- 
lina, where the Rev. John Bachman, myself, and others, have often seen it. 
Nay, I am of opinion that it spends the winter there, as well as in the 
