THIRD WEEK] June 141 



it has most delicate colours, resembling its mother in being 

 striped brown and black, although its breast and under 

 parts are of an unusually beautiful tint a kind of salmon 

 pink. I never saw this shade elsewhere in Nature. 



Blackbirds are social creatures, and where we find one 

 nest, four or five others may be looked for near by. The 

 red-winged blackbird is a mormon in very fact, and often 

 a solitary male bird may be seen guarding a colony of 

 three or four nests, each with an attending female. A 

 sentiment of altruism seems indeed not unknown, as I 

 have seen a female give a grub to one of a hungry nestful, 

 before passing on to brood her own eggs, yet unhatched. 



While looking for the blackbirds' nests we shall come 

 across numerous round, or oval, masses of dried weeds 

 and grass mice homes we may think them; and the small, 

 winding entrance concealed on one side tends to confirm 

 this opinion. Several will be empty, but when in one 

 our fingers touch six or eight tiny eggs, our mistake will 

 be apparent. Long-billed marsh wrens are the architects, 

 and so fond are they of building that frequently three or 

 four unused nests are constructed before the little chocolate 

 jewels are deposited. 



If we sit quietly for a few moments, one of the owners, 

 overcome by wren curiosity, will appear, clinging to a reed 

 stalk and twitching his pert, upturned tail, the badge of 

 his family. Soon he springs up into the air and, bubbling 

 a jumble of liquid notes, sinks back into the recesses of 

 the cat- tails. Another and another repeat this until the 

 marsh rings with their little melodies. 



If we seat ourselves and watch quietly we may pos- 



