BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 145 



removed, it is supposed, by the parents. They are never 

 found near the nest, as they would be if the young Cow- 

 Blackbird expelled them as does the Cuckoo ; indeed, Mr. 

 Nuttall has seen parent birds removing the dead young 

 to a distance from the nest and there dropping them." 



THE REDWING-BLACKBIRD. 



In early spring no sounds attract so much attention as 

 the unmusical notes of the Eedwino'-Blackbird comincj 

 to our ears from every wooded meadow. A sort of chip- 

 chip churee, mixed with many other confused and some gut- 

 tural sounds, forms this remarkable chorus, which seems to 

 be a universal chattering, hardly to be considered a song. 

 Most of the notes are sharp, and in none could I ever 

 detect anything like musical intonation. Sometimes they 

 seem to chant in concert with the little piping frogs, 

 though the sounds made by the latter are by far the most 

 musical. Indeed, the Eedwing-Blackbird never sings, 

 though we frequently hear from a solitary individual the 

 sound of chijy-chicrec. 



This bird, as well as the Cowbird, is a free-lover, 

 though the females have not yet declared their rights, 

 and their communistic prejudices are not sufiicient to 

 cause them to refuse to rear and educate their offspring. 

 In early April assemblages of Eedwings, perched upon 

 trees standing in wet grounds, constantly chatter in mer- 

 ry riot, while the bright scarlet epauletted males strive 

 to recommend themselves by music, like some awk- 

 ward youth who serenades his mistress with a jewsharp. 

 These notes seem to spring from a fulness of joy upon 

 returning to their native swamps. The Eedwings un- 

 doubtedly mate, though there is plainly no jealousy 

 among them. Like the Otaheitans, a flock of birds has 



a flock of wives, the true wife being recognized above 



10 



