_Cistothorus stellaris. Case 8, Fig. 80_
Smallest of our Wrens; the head and back streaked
with white. L. 4.
_Range._ Nests from central Missouri and northern
Delaware to Saskatchewan and southern Maine;
winters from southern Illinois and southern New
Jersey to the Gulf.
Washington, very rare T.V., two instances, May.
Ossining, rare S.R., to Oct. 16. Cambridge,
formerly locally common S.R., May 12-Sept. 25; now
chiefly T.V. N. Ohio, rare, May 12, 14, 16 and 19.
Glen Ellyn, fairly common S.R., May 8-Oct. 17. SE.
Minn., common S.R., May 13-Sept. 19.
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.