YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD 105 



workmanship or poor judgment in selecting a site. * * * In one 

 instance it was positively determined that the same bird built four 

 imperfect nests before being able to construct one that was habitable. 

 * * * A skillful, industrious bird would build one of these large 

 beautifully woven and lined nests, all complete, in from two to four 

 days. Of twent} r well built nests, nine were finished in two days, 

 nine in three days, and two in four days. * * * From one to five 

 days was allowed to elapse after the completion of the nest before egg- 

 laying began. Eggs were invariably deposited one each day." 



In the North Dakota slough, referred to at the beginning of this 

 story, red-winged blackbirds were nesting commonly around the edges 

 of the marsh in the shorter vegetation growing in the shallow water, 

 but all through the deeper parts of the slough, in the tall reeds (Scirpus) 

 and flags [Typhus), the yellow-headed blackbirds fairly swarmed, with 

 nests often close together. 



The nests were firmly attached to the reeds or flags at height rang- 

 ing from 6 inches to 3 feet above the water of varying depths. Four 

 of these nests are now before me. They were evidently built, after 

 the manner described above b}^ Roberts, of wet, dead material picked 

 up from the water, which dried and shrunk enough to hold the nest 

 firmly to its support. This material consists of strips of dead leaves 

 of flags, coarse grasses, items of dead reeds, roots of water plants, 

 and general swamp rubbish. My nests are not decorated around the 

 rim with the fruiting tops of the quill-reeds for the simple reason that 

 there were no Phragmites growing in the vicinity. All the nests that 

 I saw were neatly and smoothly lined with narrow strips of dry 

 grass blades of a dull orange color, evidently carefully selected and 

 probably brought from dry land; these formed a very distinct feature 

 in all the nests. 



The nests are all bulky and very firmly woven; all but one of them 

 were somewhat crushed in packing, but one that is apparently in its 

 original shape measures 5 by 6 inches in outside diameter, fully 4 

 inches in depth, and the inner cup is about 3 inches in diameter and 

 2}i inches deep. A nest figured by Roberts (1909) measured 11 

 inches from the rim of the nest to the long extension between the reeds 

 below it; it was also partially canopied at the top. 



In southwestern Saskatchewan, where Bear Creek enters Crane 

 Lake, that wonderful bird paradise more fully described in my account 

 of the western grebe (Bent, 1919), we found yellow-headed blackbirds' 

 nests in abundance. The nests were firmly attached to the tall, 

 waving bulrushes, from 10 to 30 inches above the water, which was 

 in many places more than waist deep. They were much like those 

 described above, but instead of the distinctive lining seen in the 

 North Dakota nests they were lined with fine strips of dead flags or 



