136 THE LOG OE THE SUN 



soon come to grief. "We catch one and find that 

 it has most delicate colours, resembling its mother 

 in being striped brown and black, although its 

 breast and under parts are of an unusually beau- 

 tiful 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 nest- 

 ful, 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 appar- 

 ent. 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, 



