CONCORD 
1893 
July 23 
• 
Up river with W. Deane in the forenoon, rowing to 
Clamshell Hill and sailing thence to Fairhaven, stopping 
"by the way to visit the Marsh Wren 1 s nest nes.r Heath* s 
Cistothorus 
Bridge. The number of eggs had not been added to since 
yesterday, so I assumed that the set was complete and took 
stellaris 
• 
both eggs and nest. The male was singing about sixty yards 
away when we landed. We walked directly to the nest and 
stood within three or four geet of it for a minute or more, 
darted 
talking. Then I stopped to look in, when the female started 
out of the entrance hole and dropping to, or nearly to the 
ground, made off through the graas, probably springing 
from stem to stem but keeping so well concealed that I 
could not see her. The trembling of the stems served to 
trace her route and progress pretty accurately, however. 
After she had gone a few yards, I rushed after her, 
when she flushed and flew off slowly and heavily. The 
Bowles y&T others have never started a bird from the nest 
but in this instance I probably surprised the bird by 
approaching swiftly and silently along the path Mch I had 
made during former visits. She came about as we were 
oackine the eggs and uttered her scolding churr but did 
not again show herself. Yesterday while I was at the nest 
she kept flying from place to place in the grass near me, 
carrying in her bill something white or whitish about half 
the size of one of her own eggs. The female of the nest 
