412 Kennard, Breeding Habits of Rusty Blackbird. [juiy 



near the spring. Two empty nests found on June 16 were placed in scrub 

 oaks on sloping limbs about six feet from the ground. 



104. Sialia mexicana bairdi Ridgway. Western Bluebird. — A few 

 of these birds were found among the Yellow Pines on the hills above the 

 lake. They were nesting here and were observed at frequent intervals. 



105. Sialia currucoides (Bechstein). Mountain Bluebird. — The 

 Mountain Bluebird was common about Lake Burford, ranging from the 

 lake shore to the tops of the hills. A nest found May 25 near the cabin 

 was placed in a cleft between two forking limbs of a cedar four feet from 

 the ground. A cavity about ten inches deep had rotted out here and the 

 bluebirds had built in the bottom of it. Immediately beside the opening 

 was a notice printed on muslin, posted by Biological Survey trappers 

 to warn against the theft of wolf traps. The nest when found contained 

 five eggs that hatched about June 3. It was interesting to note that 

 young were found out of the nest among the pines on the hills on May 

 26, another instance of the fact that the season was farther advanced on 

 the hills than it was in the valley below. 



U. S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE RUSTY 

 BLACKBIRD IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND. 



BY FRED H. KENNARD. 



Plates XIX-XX. 



While the Rusty Blackbird is a common spring and autumn 

 migrant in New England, and is known to breed along our north- 

 ern boundaries, but little seems to have been written about its 

 nesting habits, except by Bendire, who has described them in 

 some detail; while its eggs are comparatively rare in collections. 

 Hence, in the spring of 1914, I fell a victim to the blandishments 

 of Owen Durfee and agreed to join him in a hunt for their nests. 

 I had noted Rusty Blackbirds several seasons before, while fish- 

 ing for landlocked salmon in Essex County, away up in the north- 

 east corner of Vermont, and thither we decided to journey. 



