62 



THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 



This liird is es- 

 sentially a plains- 

 loving" species, and 

 its favorite haunts 

 with us are the 

 reedv borders of 

 the treeless lakes, 

 and the upland 

 sloughs I if eastern 

 Washington. It is 

 highly gregarious, 

 especially in the 

 fall and earl\- 

 spring, but con- 

 fesses to about the 

 same degree of 

 domesticity as the 

 Red-wing, in late 

 spring and earlv 

 summer. 



The nests are 

 stoutlv-woven bas- 

 kets Oif reeds and 

 grasses, light and 

 dry and hand- 

 some. No' mud or 

 other matrix ma- 

 terial is used in 

 ^ i^____.^. ,( ci instruction, and 



(j' ^^T^M^ ' ■" '■'^^ interior is al- 



w a y s carefully 

 lined with fine 

 dry grass. The 



illimitable bulrushes are the favorite cuver, but rank herbage of any sort 

 is used if only it be near or o\'er water. The most humble situations 

 suffice; and the nest is often placed within a foot of the water, or its ecjuiv- 

 alent of black ooze. 



Plioto bv the Adilior. 



