BIRDS OF KANSAS. 407 



he will see that the birds must have been put to their wits' end, 

 though very likely he will not be able to guess how they made 

 shift with such unpromising materials. They made up their 

 minds to use the leaves themselves in the nest, and with this 

 idea they commenced by bending down a dozen or twenty of 

 the stiff, slender filaments, and tying their ends together at the 

 bottom. If you have ever seen a basket maker at work, with 

 his upright pieces already in place, but not yet fixed together 

 with the circular ones, you will understand exactly what the 

 birds had thus accomplished. They had a secure framework of 

 nearly parallel and upright leaves naturally attached to the 

 bough above, and tied together below by the bird's art. This 

 skeleton of a nest was about nine inches long, and four across 

 the top, running to a point below; and the subsequent weaving 

 of the nest upon this basis was an easy matter to the birds. 

 Though if one were to examine a piece of the fabric cut away 

 from the nest, he could hardly believe that the thin yet tough 

 and strong felting had not been made by some shoddy con- 

 tractor for the supply of army clothing. Yet it was all de- 

 signed in a bird' s little brain, and executed with skillful bill and 

 feet." 



A set of four eggs, taken June 10th, 1875, at Camp Harney, 

 Oregon, from a nest suspended in a willow tree, measure: .86x 

 .67, .89x. 66, .89X.70, .90x.63; pale bluish, with long irregular 

 wavy lines, thickest around the larger end, and a few scattering 

 specks and marks over the Qg,^., of reddish to blackish brown; 

 in form, oval to ovate. 



Genus SCOLECOPHAGUS Swainson. 



"Bill shorter than the head, rather slender, the edges inflexed as in Qiiisca- 

 lus, which it otherwise greatly resembles; the commissure sinnated. Culmen 

 rounded, but not flattened. Tarsi longer than the middle toe. Tail even or 

 slightly rounded. 



"The above characteristics will readily distinguish the genus from its allies. 

 The form is much like that of Agelaius. The bill, however, is more attenuated, 

 the culmen curved and slightly sinuated. The bend at the base of the commis- 

 sure is shorter. The culmen is angular at the base posterior to the nostrils, in- 

 stead of being much flattened, and does not extend so far behind." 



