368 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



the shade. One of these birds was observed to keep constantly on the 

 border of a small pond and to drive away a Kin<^bird from the place. He 

 adds that it has a peculiar short and lisping song of three notes, very difter- 

 ejit from those of the other species. In the fall the young birds uttered a 

 very different call-note. 



Mr. liidgway found this species breeding, June 23, at Parley's Park, Utah. 

 One nest was built on the horizontal branch of a willow, over a stream, 

 about four feet from the ground. It was partly pensile. It was three 

 inches deep and four in diameter ; the cavity was two inches wide and one 

 and a half deep. Externally the nest was somewhat loosely constructed of 

 flaxen fibres of plants, soft strips of inner bark and straw, and lined more 

 firmly with fine roots of plants. This structure was firmly bound around the 

 smaller branches of the limb. The inner nest was much more compactly in- 

 terwoven than the periphery. The eggs, four in number, were of a chalky 

 whiteness, more pinkish when unblown, finely sprinkled at the larger end 

 with reddish-brown dots. Length, .77 of an inch ; breadth, .51. 



Another nest from the same locality was built in the upriglit fork of a 

 wild rose, in the undergrowth of a willow thicket, and al)out four feet from 

 the ground. It is a much more compact and homogeneous nest. Its ex- 

 ternal portion was almost wholly composed of the interweaving of tlie fine 

 inner bark of deciduous shruljs, blended with a few stems of grasses, feath- 

 ers, etc., and is lined with a few fine grass stems and fibrous rcjots. The 

 eggs, four in numlier, have a pinkish-white ground, and are spotted at the 

 larger end with reddish-brown and chestnut spots, in scattered groups. 



In the sununer of 1870 a son of INIr. Thure Kumlien, of Jefferson Co., 

 Wisconsin, found the nest and eggs of this species. Eoth parents were ob- 

 tained, and were fi.lly identified by Professor Baird. The nest was placed in 

 a thick mass of coarse marsh grasses, near the ground, and firmly interwo\en 

 with the tojis of the surrounding herbage. The grass and reeds, among which 

 it was made, grow in the midst of water, and it was discovered l)y mere acci- 

 dent in a hunt for rail's eggs. It was found, June 28, on the edge of Lake 

 Koskonong. It is a large nest for the bird ; its base and sides are made of 

 masses of soft lichens and mosses, and within this a neat and firm nest is 

 woven of bits of wool and fine wiry stems of grasses, and lined with 

 the same. The eggs measure .70 by .54 of an inch, are white with a pink- 

 ish tinge, and are marked with reddish-browu and f nnter lilac blotches at 

 the larger end. 



