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BIRDS OP"^ AMERICA 



each of the females builds her own nest and 

 rears her own little brood, while her lord and 

 master struts in the sunshine and displays his 

 brilliant plumage. 



There is comparatively little variation as be- 

 tween individuals in this bird's characteristic 

 combination of song and call-note, yet it is very 

 differently transliterated by different persons, 

 0-ka-lce seems as accurate as any of these 

 attempts, and truer to the note than conk-a- 

 rce or cong-gar-ce, since the opening tone seems 

 to be very plainly the vowel O, rather than the 

 consonant sound K. Mr. Mathews finds sev- 

 eral phrases in the Red-wing's song and makes 

 out of them the following jingle: 



0-ka-Iee, cong-quer-ree. 



You chootea, Oloiig tea ! 



Gl-oogl-ee, Conk-a-tree, 



Quange-se-fea, Shoo-chong tea ! 



And then he proceeds to adapt these deliver- 

 ances to musical notation intended to represent 

 variations of the phrase, with a result which 

 might be entitled, " The Ballad of the Bog." 



Other notes of the Red-wing are a dull 

 chuck, or a prolonged whistle, sounded fre- 

 quently in early summer, or a group of sharply 

 accented scolding notes, or a single nasal call, 

 not unlike that of the Nighthawk. 



There is marked contrast between the color of 

 the male and that of the female and the latter 

 might easily be mistaken for a bird of a totally 

 different species. 



The Bi-colored Red-wing and the Tri-colored 

 Red-wing might well be called California Red- 



wing and Western Red-wing, for they differ 

 from the Red-wing only in their occurrence and 

 but slightly in their plumage. 



" Many complaints have been made against the 

 Red-wing, and several States have placed at 

 times a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause 

 great damage to grain in the West, especially in 

 the upper Mississippi valley; and the rice grow- 

 ers of the South say that it eats rice. No com- 

 plaints come from the northeastern part of the 

 country, where the bird is much less abvmdant 

 than in the West and South. 



" The examination of 1083 stomachs showed 

 that vegetable matter forms 74 per cent, of the 

 food, while the animal matter, mainly insects, 

 forms but 26 per cent. A little more than 10 

 per cent, consists of harmful species. Weevils, 

 or snout-beetles, amount to 4 per cent, of the 

 year's food, but in June reach 25 per cent. As 

 weevils are among the most harmful insects 

 known, their destruction should condone for at 

 least some of the sins of which the bird is ac- 

 cused. Grasshoppers constitute nearly 5 per 

 cent of the food, while the rest of the animal 

 matter is made up of various insects, a few snails 

 and crustaceans. The few dragon flies found 

 were probably picked up dead, for they are too 

 active to be taken alive, unless by a Flycatcher. 

 So far as the insect food as a whole is con- 

 cerned, the Red-wing may be considered entirely 

 beneficial. 



" The interest in the vegetable food of this 

 bird centers around the grain. Only three kinds, 

 corn, wheat, and oats, were found in appreciable 



NESTS AND EGGS OF RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS 

 Placed amid the sweet flags On a tussock of grass 



