544 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
chamber being gray and weathered, while the new entrance was straw 
colored (1922b, p. 165). 
The protecting, dummy nests, it is said, are taken advantage of 
by rats, mice, and various small reptiles, and one investigator writes 
that he has “frequently been startled by reaching into a nest . . . 
and pulling out a ten inch lizard/’ 
Additional Literature.—Bailey, Vernon, Animal Life of the Carlsbad 
Cavern, 158-159, 1928.— Edwards, H. A., Condor, XXI, 65-68, 1919 (losses to 
breeding birds).— Woods, R. S., Bird-Lore, XXVI, 2-3, 1924. 
WESTERN MARSH WREN: Telmatodytes palustris plesius (Oberholser) 
Description.— Wing: 2.1 inches, tail 1.8, bill .5. Adults: Top of head and fore- 
back black, back streaked with white , rest of back pale brown, upper and lower tail 
coverts and middle tail feathers heavily barred; line over eye whitish, underparts gray¬ 
ish. Young: Crown and foreback black without white streaks. 
Range. —Breeds mainly in the arid Upper Sonoran Zone from British Columbia 
(east of Cascades) and western Montana south to New Mexico and northeastern 
California; winters from British Columbia (a few), Utah, California deserts, and 
central Texas south to Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, and Cape San Lucas. Recorded from 
Arizona. 
State Records. —There are few places in New Mexico that, offer the conditions 
desired by the Western Marsh Wren and it occurs only locally in the State. The 
type specimen was taken September 24, 1888, at Fort Wingate (Shufcldt); but the 
species is here a migrant. [At Lake Burford one was seen May 27, 1918 (Wetmore).] 
It was common at Lake La Jara and Lake Burford October 2, 1904, and an old nest 
found at Lake La Jara showed that it breeds there. It probably also breeds in the 
tules around the spring at San Rafael, where it was found common October 26-31 
1908 (Bailey). In addition it has been noted at Lake Piedra, September 13, 1874 
(Henshaw); on the Rio Puerco near the mouth of the Rio San Jose, September 6-7, 
1905 (Hollister); at Santa Rosa, October 3, 1902 (Gaut); and at Mesilla, October 16, 
1913 (Merrill). 
The species probably winters south of New Mexico. On its return in the spring 
it was taken on April 8, 1892, at Lake Palomas close to the southern boundary 
(Mearns); and arrived at Albuquerque on April 6, 1900 (Birtwell). It was common 
there the following week.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest—I n colonies; large and globular with entrance on the side, fastened to tule 
stalks and woven of wet tule stems, with wet grass and algae matted in and with a 
lining of dry algae and tule pith. Eggs: 5 to 10, thickly dotted with chocolate- 
brown. 
Food.— (Marsh Wrens of various species.) Almost wholly insects, including 
beetles, wasps, ants, bugs, caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, and spiders. Small 
mollusks are also eaten. The bird is to be ranked among our eminently useful 
species . . . many harmful species of insects breed and live in marshes and waste 
places ... so that the birds which destroy them on wild land are removing the 
source of supply from which are recruited the hosts that infest the farm” (Beal). 
General Habits.— A few tule-bordered lakes in the arid interior 
explain the otherwise anomalous presence of the Western Marsh 
Wrens in New Mexico. Colonies of these vivacious, jolly little song- 
