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Wren (Natural size Nest globular)

(Natural size.) Nest, globular, the entrance at one side, of coarse grasses, reed stalks, etc., lined with fine grasses, attached to reeds or bushes. Eggs, five to nine, uniform, minutely speckled or thickly marked with cinnamon- or olive-brown, *65 x 49.

If you would make the acquaintance of this Marsh Wren, you have only to visit his home in the cat-tails and tall, reedy grasses bordering rivers, creeks, and sloughs. It will be unnecessary to announce yourself; he will know of your presence long before you know of his, and from the inner chambers of his dwelling will proceed certain scolding, cacking notes before this nervous, excitable bit of feathered life appears on his threshold. With many flourishes of the tail and much bobbing and attitudinizing, he inquires your business, but before you have had time enough to inspect him he has darted back into his damp retreats, and you can tell of his frequently changing position only by his scolding, grumbling notes.

All this time his neighbors and he generally has numbers of CREEPERS. them-have doubtless been charming you with their rippling, bubbling, gurgling song. It is quite beyond their control; they seem filled to overflowing with an inexhaustible supply of music. Sometimes, like a mine of melody, it explodes within them and lifts them from the dark recesses of the flags up into the air above. 725b. C. p. griseus Brewst. WORTHINGTON'S MARSH WREN.- "Black of upper parts much duller and less extended than in palustris, usually confined to the extreme sides of the crown and a short, narrow area in the middle of the back, and in extreme specimens almost wholly absent. Brown of sides, flanks, and upper parts pale and grayish. Dark markings of the under tail-coverts, flanks, sides, and breast faint, confused, and inconspicuous, sometimes practically wanting." W., 1.80; T., 1.53; B., 50 (Brewster, Auk, x, 1893, p. 218).