122 THE NATURALIST'S GUIDE. 



Bunting." Common summer resident. Arrives from 

 April Gth to 19th; leaves by the last week in October. 

 Deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds, — the only 

 example of ^polygamy among undomesticated birds in 

 North America. Gregarious throughout the year, but 

 more so in autumn. Often seen around cows in pursuit 

 of insects, sometimes alighting upon them ; from this 

 habit it derives its po^^ular (Cow-Bunting) and specific 

 {jpecorh) names. 



100. Agelaeus Phoeniceus, Vieill. — Red-ivinged 

 Blackbird, "Swamp Blackbird." Common summer resident. 

 Arrives from February 25th to March 10th; leaves by the 

 last of October. Nests in the marshes, generally on a tus- 

 sock; sometimes in low bushes. I have found the nests' 

 on an island in the marshes of Essex River, placed on trees 

 twenty feet from the ground ! In one case, where the 

 nest was placed on a slender sapling fourteen feet high, 

 that swayed w4th the slightest breeze, the nest was con- 

 structed after the manner of our Baltimore Orioles, pret- 

 tily woven of the bleached sea-weed called eel-grass. So 

 well constructed was this nest, and so much at variance 

 with the usual style, that had it not been for the female 

 sitting on it, I should have taken it for a nest of /. Balti- 

 more. It was six inches deep. 



101. Xanthocephalus icterocephalus, Baird. -^ 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird. A single sjjecimen was procured 

 by my young friend, Frank Sanger, at Watertown, about 

 the 15th of October, 1869. The wings, tail, and one foot 

 of this specimen are now in my possession. Through the 

 kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, I have been enabled to com- 

 pare them with specimens of the same species in the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology, thereby identifying them. 

 This bird was in immature plumage, evidently the young- 

 of-the-year. It was shot in an orchard. The occiu-rence 

 of this specimen in this section is singular, as its usual 



