Bird Study in a Nebraska Swamp 61 



The noteworthy thing about these data is the great variety 

 of food used. Apparently the factor of nest location has 

 again been the one which determined the nestling food. The 

 conditions of shade, soil, vegetation, and moisture are varied. 

 The nest was located at the water's edge, and at this point 

 the land sloped I'apidly up from the swamp and was covered 

 by a heavy growth of willows and wolfberry bushes. There 

 were at least four readily distinguishable zones in which the 

 conditions mentioned varied : first, the water surface, filled 

 with flags, arrowhead lilies, and, further out, cat-tails and 

 wild rice, furnished mayflies, dragon flies, with an occasional 

 grasshopper; second, the shore line, a zone of from three to 

 five feet in width covered with decaying vegetation and bits 

 of sticks, contained principally beetles and crickets; third, a 

 narrow strip of grass covered territory lying between the shore 

 and the bushes; and fourth, the bushes. The last two zones 

 contained great numbers of insects of various species with 

 grasshoppers the inost numerous. These two furnished the 

 greater part of the insects fed and seemed to be the favorite 

 hunting ground of the female. The result of these varying 

 conditions is the use of a variety of species as food instead of 

 practically only two or three as the Yellow-heads did. The 

 Red-wings foraged within a comparatively small area about 

 the nest. The female never- became quite reconciled to the 

 presence of the blind and always came to the nest in a quick 

 nervous way and, after inspecting it, fed hurriedly. The 

 young did not raise the posterior end of the body in voiding 

 the excreta and the parent was compelled to probe in the 

 nest for it. Always on leaving the nest the female uttered a 

 call much like that of the cowbird and one that I never 

 before had heard a Red-wing use. 



AMERICAN BITTERN (Botuurus Untiginosus) . 



As far as we could discover tliere was only this one pair 

 nesting in the swamp. The nest, which was discovered on 

 June 28, contained five young several days old. The nest 

 was built in water about three feet deep in a heavy growth 

 of I'ushes. It was simply a floating platform of reeds with 



