FIRST-COMERS. 53 



bobolink sit and swing, but rather in the bushes and trees 

 skirting the muddy shores. They build their nests in a va- 

 riety of positions, but usually a convenient fork in an alder- 

 bush is chosen, twenty or thirty pairs often dwelling within 

 a radius of a hundred feet. The nest is a rude, strong affair 

 of sticks and coarse grass-stalks lined with finer grass, and 

 looks very bulky and rough beside the neat structure of the 

 redwing ; which illustrates how much better a result can be 

 produced by an artistic use of the same material. In the 

 case of these, as well as the redwinged blackbirds, however, 

 the female does not wear the jetty, iridescent coat which 

 adorns the head of the family, and reflects the sunlight in a 

 thousand prismatic tints, but hides herself and the home she 

 cares for by affecting a dull, brown-black, streaked suit, as- 

 similating her closely with the surrounding objects. This 

 protective coloration of plumage is possessed by the females 

 of many species of birds, which would be very conspicuous, 

 and of course greatly liable to danger while incubating their 

 eggs, if they wore the bright tints of the males. The tana- 

 ger and indigo-bird afford prominent examples. Sometimes 

 the crow blackbirds make their homes at a distance from 

 the water, and occasionally they choose odd places, such as 

 the tops of tall pine-trees, the spires of churches, martin- 

 boxes in gardens, and holes in trees. The latter situation is 



