MARCH 339 
weaver’s skill of its Oriole cousins, though the material 
they work with is of coarser texture, being fastened 
firmly to low bushes or reeds and woven of grass 
and the split leaves of reeds and flags, all nicely lined 
with soft grasses and various vegetable fibres. Often, 
like that of the Marsh Wren, the nest will be sus- 
pended between three of four reeds, and so firmly 
knit that it resembles one of the four-legged work- 
baskets that belonged to the ‘mother’s room’ of 
our youth. The pale blue eggs of the Redwing are 
particularly noticeable from the character of the mark- 
ings that thickly cover the larger end, for they seem 
the work of a sharp scratching pen dipped in purplish 
black ink and held by an aimless human hand, rather 
than the distribution of natural pigment. 
“« An eater of grain though the Redwing is, and a menace 
to the farmer in certain regions, Professor Beal concedes 
to him a liberal diet of weed seeds and animal food, 
itself injurious to vegetation. Dr. B. H. Warren, who 
has made a wide study of the food habits of this 
Blackbird, says: ‘The Redwing destroys large num- 
bers of cutworms. I have taken from the stomach 
of a single Swamp Blackbird as many as twenty-eight 
cutworms. In addition to the insects, etc., men- 
tioned above, these birds also, during their residence 
with us, feed on earthworms, grasshoppers, crickets, 
plant-lice, and various larve, so destructive at times 
in field and garden. During the summer season fruits of 
the blackberry, raspberry, wild strawberry, and wild cherry 
are eaten to a more or lessextent. The young, while under 
parental care, are fed exclusively on an insect diet.’ 
