WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



The centre of all their interest is the compact, 

 tight basket, woven of wet grass-blades and split 

 rush-leaves, which is supported among the reeds 

 or rests on a tussock of wire-grass surrounded by 

 water. It is a model nest, and they understand 

 so well the labor it cost that they are mightily 

 jealous of harm coming to it. The eggs are five 

 in number, of a faded blue tint, marbled, streaked 

 and spotted with leather-color and black, in shape 

 rather elongated and pointed. The fledglings are 

 abroad about the ist of June, when the parents pro- 

 ceed to the production of another brood. 



These blackbirds have the bump of domesticity 

 largely developed, and if their household is dis- 

 turbed they make a terrible fuss, calling upon all 

 nature to witness their sorrow and execrate the 

 wretch that is violating their privacy. 



During all the spring season, and particularly 

 while the young are being provided for, the red- 

 wings subsist almost exclusively on worms, grubs, 

 caterpillars, and a great variety of such sluggish 

 insects, and their voracious larvae, as do damage 

 to the roots and early sprouts of whatever the 

 farmer plants; nor do they abandon this diet until 

 the ripening of the wild-rice and maize in the fall. 

 ''For these vermin,'' says Wilson, "the starlings 



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