BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 347 
I have spent considerable time in its favorite districts, many 
years ago, since which time I have anticipated its presence, 
particularly in the southeastern prairies of Minnesota. The 
nests were comparatively easy to find after the peculiar habit of 
the male of singing while poised. on his wings was carefully 
noted, for as a general thing this demonstration takes place 
not very far from over where his listening little wife is attend- 
ing to family duties. The nests were always found not far 
away, if detected at all, and generally flush with the ground, 
but in localities characterized by rank or bushy, sedgy growth. 
it was sometimes found a little more elevated. It consists of 
weeds and grasses, rather indifferently constructed, with a 
sparing supply of the same for the lining, but a little finer. 
They have from four to five eggs that resemble those of the 
Bluebird, as has been often observed, to such an extent that 
they are almost indistinguishable. 
The plumage of the male, as described in the Special Char- 
acters of the species, is completely changed in the month 
succeeding the breeding period, after which the hovering de- 
monstrations and song are dispensed with, and from small 
colonies of a few pairs, in one circumscribed locality, it soon 
gathers into considerable fiocks in those sections where it hab- 
itually is most abundant. The song of the male is really much 
that of the Yellow-breasted Chat, a musician with whose mel- 
odies I became exceedingly familiar at Sacramento, California, 
during a somewhat protracted visit there in the spring of 1869. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Entirely black; a broad band on the wing with the outer 
edges of the quills and tail feathers, white. Bill rather large, 
swollen at the base; commissure much angulated near the 
base. Legs large and stout; claws strong, compressed, and 
much curved. Wings long and pointed. ‘Tail a little shorter 
than the wings and slightly graduated, the feathers rather 
narrow and obliquely oval-rounded at the end. 
Length, 6.50; wing, 3.50; tail, 3.20; tarsus, 1.00; bill, 0.60. 
Habitat—from Minnesota, plains of Dakota, west to the 
Rocky Mountains. 
