MARSH WREN 
209 
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 20th 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, give it, to a superficial observer, something of the 
appearance of the Common House Wren, represented in 
Plate VIII.; 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 olf; and, on the 1st of September, 
very few of them are to be seen. How far north the migra- 
tions 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, 
VOL. i. 
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