Yellow-Headed Blackbird 227 



The typical finished nest is a firm, inverted, cone-shaped, basket-like 

 affair, suspended among the rigid stems of last year's reeds, only excep- 

 tionally among new growth. The height is usually eight to ten inches. 



A skillful, industrious bird will build one of these large, beautifully 

 woven and lined nests all complete in two to four days. When it is con- 

 sidered that a single bird has not only to collect but skillfully to manipu- 

 late all this large mass of material, it is surprising to see these bulky 

 nests spring up almost over night. 



The eggs in a set are three to five, usually four. They are laid one 

 each day, the first egg one to five days after the completion of the nest, 

 depending apparently upon the time it takes the nest to dry out. All 

 the eggs of a set are alike in color and shape, but there 

 is considerable variation in different sets. The out- a ds 



line varies from almost elliptical to a pronounced 

 ovate. The measurements vary from 1.12 inches to .94 inches in 

 length by .76 to .64 of an inch in breadth. The shell is smooth and 

 glossy. The ground-color of the four eggs varies from a soiled greyish 

 white in some sets to a pale olive-white in others, and in rare instances 

 has a faint pink-lilac hue. When these tints correspond, as is usually 

 the case, to similar shades in the markings, there result eggs of a general 

 dull gray, olive, or pink-lilac hue. The markings vary from a fine close 

 speckling, almost uniform over the entire egg, to large blotches scattered 

 at the smaller end and becoming confluent at the larger end. Most of 

 the eggs present very fine and irregular tracings and spots of black or 

 dark brown about the larger end, suggesting the more pronounced zig- 

 zags on the eggs of other Blackbirds and Orioles. 



The usual period of incubation is ten days. 



The young remain in the nest about twelve days, when they begin a 

 precarious life in the swaying reed-tops, where they are cared for for 

 some days by both parents. The curiously variegated, generally buffy- 

 toned, plumage of the young birds blends well with their surroundings 

 at this time ; and, as they are indisposed to move, it quite effectively con- 

 ceals them. 



The nesting season over, old and young leave the sloughs and marshes 

 and, congregating in straggling flocks, sometimes accompanied by Red- 

 wings and Crackles, wander over the upland for a short time before de- 

 parting for the South. They rarely assemble in the 

 North in the large compact flocks so characteristic of Migration 



the Redwing and the Rusty. Their southward move- 

 ment begins early, and they have largely left the northern part of their 

 range by the first of September. Stragglers, however, may occasionally 

 be found even until snowfall. Throughout their winter range in the 

 southern United States they roam about in flocks, feeding familiarly 

 about cattle-ranches, farms, and the outskirts of towns and villages, lead- 

 in L r a sort of Cowbird existence. 



The song of the male Yellowhead, if song it may be called, is a most 

 remarkable, unmusical and unbirdlike effort. At a time of the year when 



