276 NOTES ON THE 



Their spring arrival is later than any other species of the 

 family, being more frequently after, than before May first, and 

 generally the females and males arrive nearly, if not quite 

 simultaneously. 



They seek marshy places where coarse, strong reeds abound, 

 and in water too deep or miry for approach except with a boat. 

 Here they build their nests in small communities, suspending 

 them by firm and very ingenious attachments to about four or 

 five of the firmest reed-stalks, but little above the surface of the 

 surrounding water. Coarse grasses and the leaves of the reeds 

 are used in its structure, in such a manner as to evince a high 

 degree of ingenuity in bird-architecture. It varys somewhat in 

 depth but is relatively a deep nest, with the border elevated 

 and thickened into a strong brim. These nests are finished, and 

 occupied by from four to six grayish-green eggs spotted all 

 over with reddish or umber brown, by tlie first or second week 

 in June. I have never known them to bring out more than one 

 brood, in caring for which the males have seemed to share all 

 incidental burdens. Their efforts at song are amusing, being 

 much more of a cachination which reminds one of those of a 

 precocious male chicken, making its first rather weak attempts 

 to crow. 



After maturing their broods they become a little more dis- 

 tributed, but by no means generally, as do the other members of 

 its family, until preparing for migration, which takes place a 

 little earlier than the Red-wings. Like the latter they feed 

 principally upon wild rice which abounds along the course of 

 streams and in shallow ponds and lakes, but they are often seen 

 in the yards where cattle and dairy cows are herded, strolling 

 about as fearlessly as the Cowbirds, with whom they are greatly 

 prone to associate, apparently drawn by the scattering seeds, 

 grains and intestinal worms occasionally dropped in the offal. 

 For almost thirty years they have bred and fed in one locality, 

 long since within the earliest corporate limits of this city (Min- 

 neapolis) until their old reedy haunt became too valuable for 

 poor folks and was buried under the deep grading for city lots. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



First quill nearly as long as second and third, (longest) 

 decidedly longer than the third; tail rounded or slightly grad- 

 uated; general color black, including the inner surface of 

 wings arid axillaries, base of lower mandible all round, feathers 

 adjacent to nostrils, lores, upper eyelids and remaining space 

 around the eye; the head and neck all around, the fore part of 



