60 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 87 



At noon on July 3, a small blind was erected at a Red- 

 wing's nest which contained four yonng. The nest was dis- 

 covered Jnly 1 and held at that time three young and one egg. 

 At 2 :30 P. M. of the third, an attempt was made to begin the 

 study but the birds had not yet become reconciled to the 

 presence of the blind and would not approach at all. At 

 7 :30 A. M. of the fourth, observations began and were con- 

 tinued until 4:30 P.M., when the high wind began to inter- 

 fere to such an extent as to make further work unproiitable. 

 As we approached, the male greeted us with his "Con-qua- 

 ree" from the top of the blind, and he continued to use it 

 during the day as a perch, either hopping about the top or 

 swinging on one of the guy ropes. The female did all the 

 feeding throughout the period of observation, the male con- 

 tenting himself with watching the nest from one of his 

 perches on the blind. At the approach of any person he left 

 his perch and circled about his head, keeping it up until he 

 had passed some distance beyond the nest. 



During the day the young were fed fifty-one times. One 

 of the four was dead at the time the work was started but 

 remained in the nest until 3:00 P.M., when the female seized 

 it and carried it away. 



TABLE II. 



Food of Nestling Eed-avinged Blackbirds. 

 Food. Number. 



Unidentified 12 



Wirewoi-ms H 



Cricket 1 



Beetle 3 



Mayfly 2 



Fly 3 



Green worms ^ 



Grasshopper 20 



Moth 3 



Spider 1 



Tomato worms ^ 



Measuring worm 1 



Total 76 



