Although we have only six species of Wrens in the eastern United States, they are so unlike in their choice of haunts that few localities which will afford them the hiding places they all love are without one or more of them. The House and Bewick's Wrens make their homes near ours; the Carolina and Winter Wrens prefer the woods; the Long-billed Marsh Wren's haunts have given him his name, and if we should call the present species Meadow Wren, its home would be similarly indicated, for it lives in wet, grassy places rather than among the cat-tails.
Ernest Seton describes its note as resembling the sound produced by striking two pebbles together, while its song is a series of chaps, running into chap-r-r-rrr. The globular nest is built on the ground, and the 6-8 eggs, laid in May, are usually pure white.
LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN
Telmatodytes palustris palustris. [Case 8], Fig. 79
Darker and larger than the Short-billed Marsh Wren, with a blackish brown crown and white stripe over the eye. L. 5¼.
Range. Nests from Virginia to Canada; winters from southern New Jersey to South Carolina. Worthington's Marsh Wren (T. p. griseus) is the form of the Atlantic coast from South Carolina to Florida. Marian's Marsh Wren (T. p. marianæ) is found on the more southern Atlantic coast and on the Gulf coast of Florida; while the Prairie Marsh Wren (T. p. iliacus) nests in the Mississippi Valley east to Indiana north to Canada, and winters along the Gulf coast. Where two races may be expected to occur together (for example, in the South, during the winter) field identification of the various races may be left to experts and the average observer must be content with plain "Marsh Wren."
Washington, very numerous S.R., Apl. 15-Nov. 1. Ossining, common S.R., May 10-Oct. 28. Cambridge, locally abundant S.R., May 15-Oct. 1; sometimes a few winter. N. Ohio, common S.R., Apl. 21-Sept. 20. Glen Ellyn, fairly common S.R., May 16-Oct. 10. SE. Minn., common S.R., May 5-Sept. 9.
As well look for pond lilies on a rocky hillside as a Marsh Wren outside a marsh. Give him cat-tails for cover and to support his bulky nest and he is at home. His scolding notes betray his ancestry and his reeling, rippling song, delivered both from a perch and on fluttering wings above the reeds, suggests in form, at least, that of the House Wren. The 5-9 eggs, laid in early June are uniform chocolate or thickly marked with brown.
CREEPERS. FAMILY CERTHIIDÆ
BROWN CREEPER
Certhia familiaris americana. [Case 2], Fig. 59