A Little Wood, etc. $7 



nest, it seems to me, unnecessarily large, constructed out of 

 rushes and coarse grass, in a thicket of alders there — last year it 

 was in a tuft of rushes, and one of his fellows had one in a bush 

 standing by itself close by — opinions among these birds as to 

 the best location for domicile appearing to differ somewhat. 



The red-winged blackbird is a strikinglj^ handsome bird, 

 with silky black coat and scarlet and yellow epaulets, but his 

 ways are not winning, nor his manners the most polished. With- 

 out a moment's intermission, as long as I am half-a-mile or more 

 from his domestic possessions, he keeps up a series of shrill com- 

 plaints and lamentations, fluttering now high overhead, now near 

 the ground, first at some distance away, and then very near — 

 until I am glad to leave the place to him. It is manners like 

 this which often lead to such a birds' being "collected" for other 

 reasons than the good of science. 



