_Troglodytes stellaris_, “LICHT.” NAUMANN, Vögel Deutschlands, III,
1823, 724 (Carolina). _Cistothorus stellaris_, CAB. Mus. Hein.
77.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 365; Rev. 146.—SCLATER, Catal. 22,
no. 142 (in part). _Troglodytes brevirostris_, NUTT. Man. I, 1832,
436.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 427, pl. clxxv.—IB. Birds Am. II,
1841, 138, pl. cxxiv. _C. elegans_, SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859,
8.
SP. CHAR. Bill very short, scarcely half the length of the head. Wing
and tail about equal. Hinder part of the crown and the scapular and
interscapular region of the back and rump almost black, streaked with
white. Tail dusky, the feathers barred throughout with brown (the
color grayish on the under surface). Beneath white; the sides, upper
part of breast, and under tail-coverts reddish-brown. Upper parts,
with the exceptions mentioned, reddish-brown. Length, 4.50; wing,
1.75; tail, 1.75.
HAB. Eastern Province of United States, west to Loup Fork of Platte.
There is a closely allied variety from Mexico and Guatemala (_C.
elegans_, SCLATER & SALVIN, Pr. Z. S., 1859, 8) which differs in the
characters stated below.
White dorsal streaks extending to the rump, which is
conspicuously banded with brown, and somewhat spotted with
whitish. Beneath, including lining of wings, light
cinnamon-brown; throat and belly paler, almost white; sides
and crissum very obsoletely barred with darker, and faintly
spotted with whitish. Feathers of jugulum like sides, but
with the color obscured by the paler edges. Tarsus, .65
long. _Hab._ Eastern Province of United States … _C. stellaris._
Streaks on back confined to interscapular region; rump and upper
tail-coverts almost plain reddish-brown. Beneath much paler
than in _stellaris_, without any appreciable indication of
bars or spots on sides and crissum, or of the fulvous of the
jugular feathers. Inside of wings snowy-white. Tarsus, .72
long. _Hab._ Mexico and Guatemala; Brazil? … _C. elegans._
The differences between these two varieties are just barely
appreciable when specimens of the two, of corresponding seasons, are
compared. Two Mexican examples (_elegans_) differ more from each other
than one does from North American specimens; because one (a typical
specimen received from Salvin) is in the worn, faded, midsummer
plumage, and the other in the perfect autumnal dress. Besides the
longer tarsi of these Mexican birds, their tails, and even their
bills, are longer than seen in North American skins. But while these
differences between the North American and Mexican birds are just
appreciable, there is one from Brazil (51,017, Sr. Don Fred.
Albuquerque) which is exactly intermediate between these two varieties
in color, while in size it is even smaller than the North American
ones, measuring as follows: wing, 1.60; tail, 1.60; culmen, .45,
tarsus, .61.
Even if recognizable as belonging to different varieties, these
specimens are certainly all referable to one species.
HABITS. The Short-billed Marsh Wren is very irregularly distributed
throughout the United States, being found from Georgia to the British
Provinces, and from the Atlantic to the Upper Missouri. It is nowhere
abundant, and in many large portions of intervening territory has
never been found.
[Illustration: _Cistothorus palustris._]
It is exclusively an inhabitant of low, fresh-water marshes, open
swamps, and meadows, is never found on high ground, and is very shy
and difficult of approach. It makes its first appearance in
Massachusetts early in May, and leaves early in September. In winter
it has been found in all the Gulf States, from Florida to Texas.
According to Nuttall, this Wren has a lively and quaint song,
delivered earnestly and as if in haste, and at short intervals, either
from a tuft of sedge or from a low bush on the edge of a marsh. When
approached, the song becomes harsher and more hurried, and rises into
an angry and petulant cry. In the early part of the season the male is
quite lively and musical. These Wrens spend their time chiefly in the
long, rank grass of the swamps and meadows searching for insects,
their favorite food.
Their nest is constructed in the midst of a tussock of coarse high
grass, the tops of which are ingeniously interwoven into a coarse and
strong covering, spherical in shape and closed on every side, except
one small aperture left for an entrance. The strong wiry grass of the
tussock is also interwoven with finer materials, making the whole
impervious to the weather. The inner nest is composed of grasses and
finer sedges, and lined with soft, vegetable down. The eggs are nine
in number, pure white, and rather small for the bird. They are
exceedingly delicate and fragile, more so than is usual even in the
eggs of Humming-Birds. They are of an oval shape, and measure .60 by
.45 of an inch.
Mr. Nuttall conjectured that occasionally two females occupied the
same nest, and states that he has known the male bird to busy itself
in constructing several nests, not more than one of which would be
used. As these birds rear a second brood, it is probable that these
nests are built from an instinctive desire to have a new one in
readiness for the second brood. This peculiarity has been noticed in
other Wrens, where the female sometimes takes possession of the new
abode, lays and sits upon her second set of eggs before her first
brood are ready to fly, which are left to the charge of her mate.
Mr. Audubon found this Wren breeding in Texas. Dr. Trudeau met them on
the marshes of the Delaware River, and their nest and eggs have been
sent to us from the Koskonong marshes of Wisconsin. It has also been
found in the marshes of Connecticut River, near Hartford; and in
Illinois Mr. Kennicott found it among the long grasses bordering on
the prairie sloughs.
In Massachusetts I have occasionally met with their nests, but only
late in July, when the rank grass of the low meadows has been cut.
These were probably their second brood. The nest being built close to
the ground, and made of the living grasses externally, they are not
distinguishable from the unoccupied tussocks that surround them.
Cistothorus palustris, BAIRD.