Vol. XXXVIIl 

 1920 



J Kennard, Breeding Habits of Rusty Blackbird. 415 



small lake. Because of the shyness of the bird, and the fact that 

 incubation had not yet begun, it was not until May 21, that we 

 finally succeeded in locating the nest, with two fresh eggs, in a 

 dead spruce top, that had floated down the stream in the spring 

 floods, and become stranded near its mouth. It was only a foot 

 above the surface of the water, in a tangle of usnea moss, and so 

 well hidden that we had paddled by it in our canoe time after 

 time without ever suspecting its presence. The nest was visit- 

 ed daily until the 24th when I took it with five eggs. 



On June 5, I found the second nest of this pair, containing five 

 eggs, — this time perhaps a hundred yards back in the swamp, 

 about twenty feet up, in a tall, unhealthy looking spruce. It was 

 placed in one of those thick bunches of evergreen twigs that 

 sometimes grow close to the trunk of a spruce, and could not be 

 seen from the ground. They had built this second nest and laid 

 five eggs in exactly twelve days. 



On June 16, I found their third nest, containing four eggs, this 

 time it was built near the first nest, beside the brook, in a tangled 

 growth of sweet gale overhanging a ditch, and about two feet 

 above the water. They had finished this third nest and laid four 

 eggs just eleven days after the taking of the second nest. I felt 

 like a pirate in taking it, but wanted to find out how persistent 

 these birds could be under continued adverse conditions. 



I was called home at this time, but on July 14, returned to the 

 woods, and found their fourth nest. This time they had built 

 upon the opposite side of the brook, about ten feet back from the 

 edge of the stream, in a thick growth of button-bushes. The 

 nest was placed in a crotch, a couple of feet above the water, just 

 as a Red-wing's would have been, and contained three young 

 birds only a few hours old, and one egg which hatched the next 

 morning. The young were watched daily till fledged. Allowing 

 fourteen days for incubation, it appears that this industrious pair 

 built their fourth nest and laid this last set of four eggs, in four- 

 teen days, a remarkable and exceptional performance, as other 

 pairs left at once when their nests were taken. 



On June 10, I found another nest containing four eggs, in var- 

 ious stages of advanced incubation. This was placed about four 

 feet up against the trunk of a comparatively isolated, thickly 



