BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 847 



I have spent considerable time in its favorite districts, many 

 years ago, since which time I have anticipated its presence, 

 particularly in the southeastern prairies of Minnesota. The 

 nests were comparatively easy to find after the peculiar habit of 

 the male of singing while poised on his wings was carefully 

 noted, for as a general thing this demonstration takes place 

 not very far from over where his listening little wife is attend- 

 ing to family duties. The nests were always found not far 

 away, if detected at all, and generally flush with the ground, 

 but in localities characterized by rank or bushy, sedgy growth, 

 it was sometimes found a little more elevated. It consists of 

 weeds and grasses, rather indifferently constructed, with a 

 sparing supply of the same for the lining, but a little finer. 

 They have from four to five eggs that resemble those of the 

 Bluebird, as has been often observed, to such an extent that 

 they are almost indistinguishable. 



The plumage of the male, as described in the Special Char- 

 acters of the species, is completely changed in the month 

 succeeding the breeding period, after which the hovering de- 

 monstrations and song are dispensed with, and from small 

 colonies of a few pairs, in one circumscribed locality, it soon 

 gathers into considerable flocks in those sections where it hab- 

 itually is most abundant. The song of the male is really much 

 that of the Yellow-breasted Chat, a musician with whose mel- 

 odies I became exceedingly familiar at Sacramento, California, 

 during a somewhat protracted visit there in the spring of 1869. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Entirely black; a broad band on the wing with the outer 

 edges of the quills and tail feathers, white. Bill rather large, 

 swollen at the base; commissure much angulated near the 

 base. Legs large and stout; claws strong, compressed, and 

 much curved. Wings long and pointed. Tail a little shorter 

 than the wings and slightly graduated, the feathers rather 

 narrow and obliquely oval- rounded at the end. 



Length, 6.50; wing, 3.50; tail, 3.20; tarsus, 1.00; bill, 0.60. 



Habitat — from Minnesota, plains of Dakota, west to the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



