98 SINGING BIRDS. 



incubation, but few of the other sex appear associated with 

 them ; and as among the Bobolinks, sometimes two or three of 

 the males may be seen in chase of an individual of the other 

 sex, but without making any contest or show of jealous feud 

 with each other, as a concubinage rather than any regular 

 mating seems to prevail among the species. 



Assembled again in their native marshes, the male perched, 

 upon the summit of some bush surrounded by water, in com- 

 pany with his mates, now sings out, at short intervals, his 

 guttural kong-quer-ree, sharply calls ftsheah, or when disturbed, 

 plaintively utters ''ttshay ; to which his companions, not insen- 

 sible to these odd attentions, now and then return a gratulatory 

 cackle or reiterated chirp, like that of the native Meadow 

 Lark. As a pleasant and novel, though not unusual, accompa- 

 niment, perhaps the great bull-frog elevates his green head 

 and brassy eyes from the stagnant pool, and calls out in a loud 

 and echoing bellow, 'w'rroo, 'warroo, 'worrorroo, ''bodroo, which 

 is again answered, or, as it were, merely varied by the creaking 

 or cackling voice of his feathered neighbors. This curious 

 concert, uttered as it were from the still and sable waters of 

 the Styx, is at once both ludicrous and solemn. 



About the end of April or early in May, in the middle and 

 northern parts of the Union, the Red- Winged Blackbirds com- 

 mence constructing their nests. The situation made choice of 

 is generally in some marsh, swamp, or wet meadow, abounding 

 with alder i^Alnus) or button-bushes {Ccphaianthus) ; in these, 

 commonly at the height of five to seven feet from the ground, 

 or sometimes in a detached bush or tussock of rank grass in 

 the meadow, the nest is formed. Outwardly it is composed of 

 a considerable quantity of the long dry leaves of sedge-grass 

 (^Carex), or other kinds collected in wet situations, and occa- 

 sionally the slender leaves of the flag {Iris) carried round all 

 the adjoining twigs of the bush by way of support or suspen- 

 sion, and sometimes blended with strips of the lint of the 

 swamp Asclepias, or silk-weed {Asclepias iticarnata) . The 

 whole of this exterior structure is also twisted in and out, and 

 carried in loops from one side of the nest to the other, pretty 



