194 
TROGLODYTES PALUSTRIS. 
145 . TROGLODYTES PALUSTRIS , BONAPARTE. 
CERT II I A PALUSTRIS , WILSON. —MARSH WREN. 
WILSON, PLATE XII. FIG. IV- 
This obscure but spirited little species has been 
almost overlooked by the naturalists of Europe, as well 
as by those of its own country. The marsh wren arrives 
in Pennsylvania about the middle of May, or as soon as 
the reeds and a species of nymphea, usually called splat- 
terdocks, which grow in great luxuriance along the tide 
water of our rivers, are sufficiently high to shelter it. 
To such places it almost wholly limits its excursions, 
seldom venturing far from the river. Its food consists 
of flying insects, and their larvae, and a species of green 
grasshoppers that inhabit the reeds. As to its notes, 
it would be mere burlesque to call them by the name of 
song. Standing on the reedy borders of the Schuylkill 
or Delaware, in the month of June, you hear a low, 
crackling sound, something similar to that produced by 
air bubbles forcing their way through mud or boggy 
ground when trod upon ; this is the song of the marsh 
wren. But as, among the human race, it is not given 
to one man to excel in every thing, and yet each, 
perhaps, has something peculiarly his own ; so, among 
birds, we find a like distribution of talents and pecu- 
liarities. The little bird now before us, if deficient and 
contemptible in singing, excels in the art of design, and 
constructs a nest, which, in durability, warmth, and 
convenience, is scarcely inferior to one, and far superior 
to many, of its more musical brethren. This is formed 
outwardly of wet rushes mixed with mud, well inter- 
twisted, 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 
