THICK-BILLED REDWING 163 



to the sun from 8:30 to 10: 10 while it was shaded during the remainder of the 

 day. On July 1, the day on which we watched during this period, she spent 

 50 minutes or exactly one-half the time in shading the young while not a minute 

 was so spent at any other time of the day. In shading the young she always 

 assumed the same position with her head toward the sun and broadside to the 

 blind. One foot was placed on each side of the nest, the beak held wide open, 

 the wings half spread and slightly drooping, and the feathers of the head and 

 neck elevated. This resulted in entirely shading the young and is the most 

 perfect development of this brooding position yet noticed in an individual bird. 



Voice. — The song and call notes of the thick-billed redwing are 

 generally considered to be similar to those the eastern redwing, but 

 Francis H. Allen tells me of a song that he heard in Colorado that 

 "ended with a peculiar turn something like conquer ee-ee-lyoo." 



Enemies. — Cowbirds are probably more abundant throughout 

 the range of this redwing than they are in the east, hence this black- 

 bird sometimes is often imposed upon. L. R. Wolfe wrote to Fried- 

 mann (1934): "Probably ninety percent of the redwing nests [in 

 Decatur County, Kans.] contained one or more eggs of the cowbird 

 and I remember frequent extended searches to find a nest without 

 eggs of the parasite." 



Winter. — While large numbers of thick-billed redwings remain 

 in winter throughout the southern portions of their breeding range, 

 especially in Colorado, there is a heavy southeastward movement in 

 the fall toward their winter quarters in the Southern States, from New 

 Mexico to Louisiana. 



Harry Harris (1919) writes of their coming to the region of Kansas 

 City, Mo.: "They began arriving in small numbers about the middle 

 of November and continued coming in increasing numbers until 

 during the intense cold periods of late December and January there 

 were countless thousands resorting to common roosts in the timbered 

 bottoms along the Missouri River. In the early mornings when the 

 birds scattered to feed, great flocks flew over the city to their feeding 

 grounds on the prairie regions many miles to the south and west. 

 It is estimated that some of the flocks covered daily from thirty to 

 fifty miles on these journeys." 



W. E. Lewis (1925) gives the following graphic account of the im- 

 mense flocks of redwings, with a few Brewer's blackbirds and cow- 

 birds, as seen flying to and from their winter roosts in Oklahoma: 



They could be seen coming for three or four miles, in a column that resembled at 

 that distance the line of smoke given off by a distant locomotive, except that it 

 was constantly writhing and twisting like a sinuous serpent. As the dark band 

 approached, the individual birds could be distinguished. The band was perhaps 

 thirty feet across and there were usually about ten to fifteen birds to the rod of 

 cross section. Sometimes there are fewer than this, but sometimes many more. 

 The column was not continuous. Possibly there would be a mile or two of black- 

 bird ribbon, then a gap of half a mile, then a longer section. On February 13, 



