276 NOTES ON THE 
Their spring arrival is later than any other species of the 
family, being more frequently after, than before May first, and 
generally the females and males arrive nearly, if not quite 
simultaneously. 
They seek marshy places where coarse, strong reeds abound, 
and in water too deep or miry for approach except with a boat. 
Here they build their nests in small communities, suspending 
them by firm and very ingenious attachments to about four or 
five of the firmest reed-stalks, but little above the surface of the 
surrounding water. Coarse grasses and the leaves of the reeds 
are used in its structure, in such a manner as to evince a high 
degree of ingenuity in bird-architecture. It varys somewhat in 
depth but is relatively a deep nest, with the border elevated 
and thickened into a strong brim. These nests are finished, and 
occupied by from four to six grayish-green eggs spotted all 
over with reddish or umber brown, by the first or second week 
inJune. I have never known them to bring out more than one 
brood, in caring for which the males have seemed to share all 
incidental burdens. Their efforts at song are amusing, being 
much more of a cachination which reminds one of those of a 
precocious male chicken, making its first rather weak attempts 
to crow. 
After maturing their broods they become a little more dis- 
tributed, but by no means generally, as do the other members of 
its family, until preparing for migration, which takes place a 
little earlier than the Red-wings. Like the latter they feed 
principally upon wild rice which abounds along the course of 
streams and in shallow ponds and lakes, but they are often seen 
in the yards where cattle and dairy cows are herded, strolling 
about as fearlessly as the Cowbirds, with whom they are greatly 
prone to associate, apparently drawn by the scattering seeds, 
grains and intestinal worms occasionally dropped in the offal. 
For almost thirty years they have bred and fed in one locality, 
long since within the earliest corporate limits of this city (Min- 
neapolis) until their old reedy haunt became too valuable for 
poor folks and was buried under the deep grading for city lots. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
First quill nearly as long as second and third, (longest) 
decidedly longer than the third; tail rounded or slightly grad- 
uated; general color black, including the inner surface of 
wings and axillaries, base of lower mandible all round, feathers 
adjacent to nostrils, lores, upper eyelids and remaining space 
around the eye; the head and neck all around, the fore part of 
