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BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Yellow-Headed 

 Blackbirds 



Youngsters perched, without seeming to feel any dis- 

 comfort from their strained position. And what a 

 racket they made when the parent birds returned from 

 an excursion to distant meadows and lawns, with bill- 

 some tidbits ! They were certainly a hungry lot of 

 bairns. When I waded out into the shallow water 

 • toward their rushy home, the old birds 

 became quite uneasy, circling about above 

 me like the red-wings, and uttering 



a harsh blackbird " chack," varied 



intervals by a loud, and not 

 unmusical, chirp. 



You should see the 



nest of the yellow-head. It is 



really a fine structure, showing 



no small amount of artistic skill — 



a plaited cup, looking almost as if it 



had been woven by human 



hands, the rushes of the rim 



and sides folding the supporting reeds 



in their loops. Thus the nest and its 



reedy pillars are firmly bound together. 



I waded out to a clump of rushes 



and found one nest with three eggs in 



its softly felted cup • — the promise, no 



doubt, of a belated, or possibly a second, 



brood. 



" There the 

 youngsters 

 perched " 



