BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



four or five eggs are dull greenish in color, usually heavily 

 spotted and blotched with brow^n. 



The male bird is a wonderfully fine fellow in his superb 

 black attire, which shimmers with iridescent reflections of pur- 

 ple, blue and green. The white or pale straw color of the eye 

 is very noticeable in contrast to the black surrounding it. 

 While courting, the male bird utters an apology for a song — 

 a sort of sputtering address — to the female, which I have 

 attempted to translate into the following syllables: iuck-tuck" 

 qsi ! tuck-tuck-qsi! The female, which is brownish black in 

 color and without the brilliant iridescence, seems to enjoy this 

 effort at bird-music, however grotesque it may appear to our 

 untrained ears. I have watched the operation of nest-building 

 and found the male bird very attentive as an escort, but 

 apparently not accustomed to condescending to manual, or 

 rather rostral labor. Several pairs usually congregate in the 

 same vicinity to breed, the blackbirds being eminently social 

 fellows at all seasons of the year. They are staunch defenders 

 of their homes, flying about the head of an intruder with 

 menacing cries and gestures. 



The California brown towhee follows soon after with a 

 rather bulky nest, placed not very far from the ground, and 

 containing four or five pale greenish, black-spotted eggs; and 

 at about the same time the red-winged blackbird fastens its 

 beautiful basket among the swamp grasses, in which to deposit 

 the four or five dull bluish green eggs, spotted and scrawled 

 with brown, black and lilac. 



The western house-wren and the red-shafted flicker come 

 next in order among the nest-builders, followed closely after 

 by Nuttall's white-crowned sparrow. The house-wren's nest 



[114] 



