136 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 



the louder and more energetically delivered song which indicates that the breeding season 

 is drawing near. 



The wide-spread marshes of the everglades of Florida are covered with a luxuriant 

 growth of tall grass which attains to the height of five or even six feet. These vast plains 

 form the homes of hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds and there they also breed. As 

 the grass is submerged in at least a foot of water in the spring, the Blackbirds are obliged 

 to suspend their nests near the top of the stout stalks, of which they bring several together 

 weaving the leaves in the nests and around them in order to make them secure. The ever- 

 glades are seldom free from wind which often blows a gale, waving the grass back and 

 forth furiously, so that the birds are forced to build exceedingly compact structures or they 

 would be blown to pieces. The nests are therefore made of the leaves of the coarse saw 

 grass which abounds, neatly and firmly woven together. The swaying motion to which 

 their domiciles are constantly subjected, has a tendency to throw the eggs out, and would 

 were it not that the birds who have doubtlessly been taught by the experience of former 

 generations, build their nests very deep and, not content with this, they make them more 

 secure by contracting the entrance so much that it is impossible for the eggs to fall out, 

 even when the grass bends so that the tops touch the water. I discovered the first nests 

 in that locality on the eighth of April, and they each contained three eggs which I after- 

 wards found were all that were ever deposited. These, contrary to the rule among birds 

 which lay a less number of eggs in the south than in the north, were proportionately smaller 

 when compared with New England specimens. 



May first of that same season found me standing on one of the small outer keys, about 

 a hundred miles south of the point last discribed. This islet, like many others, contained 

 a small lagoon in the center, around which was a belt of land that supported a number of 

 trees, mainly the kinds known, as Buttonwood and Mangrove. There were a large number 

 of Red-winged Blackbirds breeding on this Key but I was puzzled to find the nests, for I 

 could not see them in the trees and there were no bushes or grass. After watching them 

 attentively for a few moments, I saw a female emerge from a small hole in a Butterwood 

 tree not far from the ground, and climbing up to it discovered the nest which was built 

 like that of a Blue Bird. I afterward found several in similar places all containing eggs. 

 For a time I could not understand why the birds had chosen these novel situations for 

 homes, but the ha-ha of a passing group of Fish Crows helped to enlighten me, for I knew 

 that the predatory habits of this latter named species renders the eggs of all birds unsafe 

 if exposed, unless the owners are sufficiently strong to. protect them, and what the Red- 

 wings lacked in strength they made up in cunning, as they placed their treasures where 

 it was impossible for their enemies to get at them. 



By the middle of May I had reached Ipswich, where I found fresh eggs of the Red- 

 wings. Here they construct their domiciles of the long eel gi'ass which has been bleached 

 white by exposure to the sun. This is often woven into long pendulous nests which are 

 hung to trees after the manner of the Baltimore Orioles. Indeed I have found specimens 

 built by the Red-winged Blackbirds which were fully six inches deep and so nearly like 

 the structure of the -above named bird found in the same place, that it was diffcult to 



