68 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



the drooping bough of an elm or sycamore, in a dense foHage. The nest 

 is pensile and nearly a cylindrical pouch suspended from the extremity of 

 a branch. The distance from the ground varies from four to seventy feet. 

 Any substance combining the proper length, thickness and strength, is 

 used in the construction of its nest; consequently the materials depend to 

 a great extent upon the locality; long grasses, strips of bark, vegetable 

 fibres, yarns, wrapping twine, horse and cow hairs, rags, paper, and other 

 substances that are readily accessible. Golden Robin, Firebird, Hang- 

 nest, are other names by which it is known. Breeds more or less 

 abundantly in every State east of the Mississippi River. Found through- 

 out Eastern North America at various seasons, from Texas to the British 

 possessions, and from the Atlantic to the plains. 



272. Bullock's Oriole — icterus bullocki. Creamy white with a blu- 

 ish tinge, marbled with blotches and irregular lines of dark umber, deep- 

 ening almost into black, chiefly around the larger end; four to six; .85 by 

 .65. Bullock's Oriole is the western counterpart of the Baltimore, and is 

 found from the Central Plains to the Pacific, and from Washington Terri- 

 tory to Mexico. The nesting habits are precisely the same. 



273. Rusty Blackbird — scolecophagus ferrugineus. From a grayish 

 to a light green, very thickly covered with blotches and dottings of pur- 

 plish and reddish-brown, without streaks and lines; usually four in num- 

 ber, varying too much in the character of their markings, to be concisely 

 described. The size is about 1.05 by .75; in this, there is also a great 

 variation. The nest is usually placed in bushes, constructed on a layer of 

 twigs and brier-stalks and grasses mixed with mud, moulded into a circular 

 form. It is lined with fine grasses and rootlets; the finished nest resem- 

 bles that of the Redwing Blackbird. A nest found near St. John's, N. B., 

 has recently been described as being built amongst the dense foliage of the 

 upper branches of a spruce-tree. Thrush Blackbird is another name for 

 this bird. Breeds from Northern New England northward. 



Hab. Eastern North America; northwest to Alaska; in the United States west to Dakota, Nebraska, etc. 



274. Brewer's Blackbird — scolecophagus cyanocephalus. Dull 

 greenish-white or gray, with numerous streaks and blotches of dark brown ; 

 in some the markings are very large and of a lighter shade, in others 

 smaller, but so numerous as to conceal the ground color; the complement 

 is four or five, sometimes six, and measure 1.02 by .72, with considerable 

 variation. The nest is placed in the fork of a large bush or live-oak tree and 

 in garden evergreens, at a height of twenty or thirty feet. It is large and 

 bulky, and constructed externally of a rough frame of twigs, with a layer 



