Cistothorus palustris
Order Passeriformes
Family Troglodytidae
Other names: Long-billed Marsh Wren
Adult.— Head blackish-brown, unstreaked; middle of back blackish, spotted with white; rest of back, wings, and tail brown; tail barred with black; line over eye white; underparts white; only the sides washed with buff.
Nest, globular, with the opening at the side; made of grasses or cat-tails, and fastened to the stalks of cat-tails or to the stems of bushes.
Eggs, chocolate-brown, spotted with darker brown at the larger end.
The Long-billed Marsh Wren is a common summer resident of the tidal marshes from Staten Island to eastern Massachusetts. It is also common near the coast in extensive cat-tail marshes along sluggish streams, as at Wayland, Mass., but in the interior of New England it is rare or absent, except along the valley of the Connecticut River, where it occurs as far north as Springfield. The Wrens arrive early in May and remain into October. A few even spend the winter in thick tangles of cat-tails near the coast. In the tidal marshes they frequent the ditches, and nest in the high-tide bushes (Iva).
The Wrens sing all day and through much of the night, often flying up over the cat-tails or grass, and singing as they descend. In making their way through cat-tails, they grasp the stalks with their strong feet, often standing with each foot on a separate stalk and their tails cocked over their backs so far that the white under tail-coverts show. When disturbed, they often show themselves only for a moment, and then disappear into the rushes, where they keep up a harsh scolding, or when reassured, pour out again their rapid, bubbling song. The alarm-note is an energetic tschuk. The nest is made of the stalks of cat-tails bent into a globular shape and fastened to cat-tails or to high-tide bushes. It is lined with the soft down from the cat-tail head, and is entered through an opening at the side. The nest that contains the eggs is often a shabby-looking affair, made of old brown stalks, while all about are empty nests of fresh green cat-tails. These are busily woven by the male — why, no one knows.
The white line over the eye, the blackish, unstreaked head, and the black patch on the upper back distinguish this wren from [other wrens].
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)