RED CONSPICUOUS IN PLUMAGE 71 
in the San Diegan district ; and the Northwestern, found 
in the northern counties. The habits of the species are 
identical, for all are marsh-loving birds, building their 
nests among the rushes or bushes along the edge of the 
water. All the summer, fall, and winter the San Diego 
Red-wings frolic and feed in large flocks, wandering over 
the farm lands of the valleys and piping their gay “ kon- 
karee” from all the fruit trees. At this time their food 
consists of insects that are injurious to fruit trees and 
the farmers’ crops, for they glean alike in the orchard and 
behind the plough, picking up not only adult insects, but 
the larvee and eggs. Grains of all sorts and seeds are 
also part of their diet, yet the small harm they do is 
greatly overbalanced by the good they accomplish. When 
nesting time comes they are. off to the marshes and 
sloughs. Here they nest in large colonies, sometimes 
numbering hundreds, the nests so close together that the 
young birds can almost hop from one to the next. After 
the manner of the yellow-heads, the male Red-wings 
take small share in nest building or brooding. In the 
East this bird is not infrequently a victim of the para- 
sitic cowbird egg, and when this happens the brood is 
abandoned or a second nest is constructed on top of the 
old one. Occasionally these double-decker affairs are a 
foot high with one half-incubated brood walled securely 
into the lower part and a second reared above it. Nests 
built on the edges of the marsh or near the open water 
are always much deeper and more securely fastened to 
the rushes than those placed in more sheltered locations, 
as if the wise little architects knew the greater strength 
