88 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



on the reeds and rushes close above the water, and remain 

 during the night, unless disturbed by the gunners. When 

 this happens, they rise all of a sudden and perform various 

 evolutions in the air, now gliding low over the rushes, and 

 again wheeling high above them, preserving silence for 

 awhile, but finally diving suddenly to the spot formerly 

 chosen, and commencing a general chuckling noise, after 

 which they remain quiet during the rest of the night/' The 

 same author, writing of this bird under another of its names, 

 adds : " The Marsh Blackbird is so well known as a bird of 

 the most nefarious propensities, that in the United States 

 one can hardly mention its name without hearing such an 

 account of its pilferings as might induce the young student 

 of nature to conceive that it had been created for the pur- 

 pose of annoying the farmer. That it destroys an astonish- 

 ing quantity of corn, rice, and other sorts of grain, cannot 

 be denied; but that before it commences its ravages it has 

 proved highly serviceable to the crops, is equally certain/* 

 It breeds in marshy places, and the eggs are of a pale 

 bluish-white with a circle of spots and streaks of dark liver- 

 brown round the thick end, one or two scattered spots, and 

 some faint blotches of purplish-grey. (PL V. fig. 21.) 

 THE ROSE- COLOURED PASTOR. Pastor roseus. This 



