SED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS 405 



on June 22 a nest with one egg and another with 2 eggs was found, while 

 a fully fledged young bird was seen in a neighboring meadow on the 

 same day. 



The nests of Red-wings are usually located in tules and at varying 

 distances above the surface of standing water. Two nests found at La- 

 grange were in willows at the margin of a pond which had no standing 

 tules. At Mono Lake Post Office and other localities in the vicinity of 

 Mono Lake, nests (of subspecies nevadensis) were found in willows, 2 nests 

 being recorded as approximately 5 feet and 10 feet, respectively, above the 

 water; while one was found only 4 inches above the ground in a grass 

 clump in a meadow near Williams Butte. 



Nest no. 11 listed above was typical of nests (of subspecies californicus) 

 found in tules. The tips of the supporting tules were 1375 mm. above the 

 water surface, and the nest rim was -145 mm. from the water. The outside 

 diameter of the nest was 110 mm. and the height 110 mm., while the cavity 

 measured 80 mm. in diameter and 70 mm. in depth. The internal diameter 

 was, by comparison, found to be about the length of a female's hody. The 

 nest consists of three parts: (1) An outer loosely woven framework of 

 tule leaves fastened to the standing (dead) stems and growing leaves of 

 the tule thicket. The attachment of this outer framework to the tules is 

 very loose, an arrangement which undoubtedly saves some nests from 

 being tipped over when one side is attached to growing tules and the 

 other to a dead stem. (2) Next comes the bodj- of the nest, a firm structure 

 comprising some tules, but cliiefly of finer material. This material is 

 worked in while wet, either while it is green or, perhaps, after it has been 

 taken to the stream-side and moistened. Some foxtail grass of the current 

 season and still partly green was incorporated in this layer of one of the 

 nests examined. Some of the material, in the particular nest here described, 

 had a coating of green algae suggesting that tules broken down into the 

 water had been used. This middle, wet-woven layer when dried and ready 

 for use is so strong as not to break on moderate pressure with the hands. 

 This is the important structural element in the nest. (3) Finally there is 

 an inner lining of fine dry grass stems of the previous year 's growth. The 

 fibers of this layer are chiefly interwoven with each other, but some extend 

 into the middle layer and hold the two layers together. This inner layer 

 forms the soft lining on which the eggs and later the newly hatched young 

 rest. Later still it gives a holdfast for the sharp claws of the growing 

 young who can thus secure themselves against being tumbled out of the 

 nest during high winds or when the nest is beset by marauders. 



From the time that the nests are built until the young are out, the 

 parent birds, both male and female, exhibit much concern when an observer 

 enters or even passes near the colony. They fly up from their perches 



