EASTERN REDWING 133 



bottom, are then filled in with rotten wood, marsh-grass roots, fibrous peat, or mud, 

 so as to form, when dry, a stout and substantial, though concealed shell, the whole 

 very well lined with fine dry stalks of grass or with slender rushes (Scirpi). When 

 the nest is in a tussock, it is also tied to the adjoining stalks of herbage; but when 

 on the ground this precaution of fixity is laid aside. 



Harold B. Wood sends me the following note: "A dissected nest, 

 which had been built around 18 burreed stalks, was composed of 

 142 cattail leaves, up to 21 inches in length, and lined with 705 

 pieces of grasses. It also contained 34 strips of bark of water willow, 

 up to 34 inches in length, which made 273 laps around the reeds, 

 with only one making a complete loop around a stalk. The tensile 

 strength of the matting was tested by placing in the nest increasing 

 weights until a weight of four pounds was held before the nest began 

 to slip down the reeds. Eleven of 42 nests were completed and never 

 used; no nest was ever used for a second brood. Red-wings will not 

 abandon eggs merely because they are discovered, as will robins." 



Eggs. — The eastern redwing lays from three to five eggs in a set, 

 usually four. Bendire (1895) describes them as follows: 



The eggs of the Red-winged Blackbird are mostly ovate in shape; the shell 

 is strong, finely granulated, and moderately glossy. The ground color is usually 

 pale bluish green, and this is occasionally more or less clouded with a pale smoke- 

 gray suffusion. They are spotted, blotched, marbled, and streaked, mostly 

 about the larger end, with different shades of black, brown, drab, and heliotrope 

 purple, presenting great variation in the amount, character, and style of markings. 

 Occasionally an entirely unspotted egg is found. 



The average measurement of 380 eggs in the United States National Museum 

 collection is 24.80 by 17.55 millimetres, or about 0.98 by 0.69 inch. The largest 

 egg in the series measures 27.94 by 19.05 millimetres, or 1.10 by 0.75 inches; 

 the smallest, 20.57 by 15.75 millimetres, or 0.81 by 0.62 inch. 



Young. — Allen (1914) has this to say about the incubation of the 

 eggs: "During the days when the eggs are being deposited, frequently 

 both birds continue their excursions to the uplands. With the 

 laying of the third egg, incubation begins, and thenceforth both birds 

 remain in the marsh. Incubation, so far as observed, is performed 

 entirely by the female. In one instance the first egg hatched in ten 

 days, and frequently one or more of the eggs requires twelve, but the 

 usual period is eleven days." 



Of the development of the young, he writes: 



At hatching the young are blind and helpless. The skin is scarlet, with but 

 a scant covering of buffy or grayish down along the principal feather tracts. They 

 are at first exceedingly helpless, scarcely able to raise their heads for food, but 

 they gain strength rapidly after the first feeding. During the first day there is 

 considerable increase in size. On the second day feather sheaths of the primaries 

 and secondaries show distinctly. By the third day these feather sheaths appear 

 distinctly along all of the tracts. On the fourth and fifth days there is a great 

 increase in the size of the body and in the length of the quills. On the sixth 

 the feather sheaths of the wing break open. On the seventh the wing feathers 



