New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-14
4 HALF HOUR IN A MARSH.
WHAT BIRD LOVERS MAY FIND WITHIN
a SHORT DISTANCE OF THE
CROWDED CITY.
CROWDED CITY.

by c William Beebe. curator Of orthodoxy New-iorI
Geological! Society,"
There are little realms all around of which
many Of US know nothing Take, for instance
any marsh within Il half hours trolley ride OF
New-YoIk City, where cattails and reeds
abound Mosquitoes and fears of malaria keep
these places quite free from invasion, but II we
select some windy day both may be laughed
at and we will be well repaid for our trip. The
birds which frequent these places are so seldom
disturbed that they make only slight effort to
conceal their nests and we will find plenty of
most beautiful bird cradles which rock with
every passing breeze. A windy day viii reveal
interesting feature of the marsh. The soft,
yelvety looking grass which abounds in such
places is plant and yielding that it re
spends to every BREATH and each approaching
of air is revealed by an advancing curl of
grass. At ones feet the waves intersect and
recede, giving a most weird sensation, as if the
ground was moving or one was walking on
water itself. Where the grass is longer, the rec
ord of some furious gale is permanently fixed
swaths and ripples seeming about to roll on
ward break into green foam. The simile
painted ocean" is perfectly carried out There
is 10 other substance, not even sand, which
Stimulates more exactly the motions of water
than this grass.
In the nearest clump of reeds We notice sew
eral redwinged blackbirds chattering nervously-
magnificent male bird black as night and
with scarlet epauets burning on his shoulders,
swoops at US while his inconspicUous, brownish
consorts vibrate above the reeds, with
grubs empty mouthed. They are tnvarIa-
bic indexes of what is below them We may
say with perfect assurance that in that patch of
rushes two nests, one with young; beyond
three others, all with eggs We find most
beautiful structures, firm and round, woven of
coarse grasses inside and dried reeds without,
hung between two three supporting stalks,
or, if il is a fresh water marsh sheltered by
long fern fronds. The eggs are worthy of their
cradles-pearly white in color. with scrawls and
b!otches of dark purple the larger end
hiaroglyphics which only the blackbrds
translate.
In another nest find newly Matched young,
looking like large moudy stra wberries their
little naked bodies of vivid orange color, with
scanty gray tufts of down here and there. Not
far away is a nest, overlooking with five young
birds ready to fly, which scramble out at our
approach and start off boldly but come
to grief as their weak wings give out. We catch
one and find even here most delicate colors-
They resemble their mother in being striped
brown and black but their breasts and under
parts are an unusually beautiful Color indie
scribabe, but kind of salmon pink, or very
light orange l never saw this shade elsewhere
in nature. Blackbirds social, and when
find nest, four or five others may be looked
for near by. Whether he is a Mormon not is
uncertain, but very often solitary male bird
will be seen guarding Il colony of three four
nests each with an attending female. A senti-
ment of altruism is at least not unknown, as /
have seen q female give a grub to of
hungry nestful, before passing to brood her
eggs, yet unmatched.
While looking for the backbirds' nests we
will come across numerous round or oval
masses of dried reeds and grass-mice homes
may think them and the tiny winding entrance,
concealed on one side adds to this view. Sew
eral will be empty, but when our fingers touch
six or eight tiny eggs our mistake is apparent.
Long billed marsh wrens the architects and
they are so fond of building that frequently
three or four unused nests are built before the
little chocolate jewels deposited. If we sit
quietly for few minutes, one of the owners
ovt rcome by wren curiosity, will appear clingfng
to reed stalk and twitching his pert, upturned
tall the badge of his family. Soon he springs
into the air, bubbles tumble of liquid notes
and sinks back into the recesses of the cat
tails Another and another repeat this until the
whole marsh rings with their little melodies.
These are features which any half hours
tramp without even wetting our shoes will
show u.s. and before leave hints of more
deeply hidden secrets of the marsh come to as