io8 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



scrawls of the other kinds. Eggs of this bird however do not always 

 differ from the other varieties. In some localities in the South the 

 eggs are laid early in April, while in the North the height of the breed- 

 ing season is reached the latter part of May and first of June. 



HABITS. 



Red-winged Blackbirds, being so uniformly distributed throughout 

 the country, are known to nearly everyone. Although robins and 

 bluebirds are popularly known as the harbingers of Spring, their pro- 

 phecies are not always to be relied upon, and it remains for the Red- 

 winged Blackbirds to definitely announce that severe weather is a thing 

 of the past. 



Early in March large flocks of them swarm northwards, making noisy 

 demonstrations at every stopping or feeding place until they reach their 

 final destination. They are very sociable birds among themselves, and 

 for about a month or six weeks after their arrival they do nothing but 

 chatter and eat. As the mating season approaches, the male-s become 

 more noisy and demonstrative and vie with each other in the skill with 

 which they can show off their beauty to the attentive females. As they 

 stand on a dead branch and stretch to their fullest extent, first one wing, 

 then the other, then both together, it certainly is a beautiful sight and 

 one that is most attractive to the less beautiful but still handsome birds 

 who are watching them. When they have mated, each pair huats for 

 the most suitable location for a house. 



In gathering material for the nest each pair seem to particularly 

 avoid taking it from the immediate vicinity of where the prospestiv^e 

 nest is to be. So it is a common sight to see them flying from one part 

 of the marsh to another, with a stalk or rush in their beak. They also 

 gather moist soil with which to hold the nest together; this they do not 

 use to any such extent as the robin but merely enough to answer their 

 purpose, without in any way impairing the exterior appearance of their 

 home. When the outside of the nest is completed, it is skillfully 

 finished on the interior with fine grasses. As the material which is 

 used for the outside is gathered when wet, and the nest is also held to- 

 gether with mud, it is necessary to allow it to dry for a week or ten 

 days before it is ready for occupancy. If the birds are sociable before 

 nesting time, they are a great deal more so after the nests are filled 

 with the peculiar blotched blue eggs. The first signal of alarm from 

 any one of the tenants of the vast apartment house, to which the swamp 

 may well be likened, will bring every other tenant to the rescue. 

 Each one perches at the end of a limb near the seat of the trouble, and 

 with, the vehemence of his outcries causes the branch to sway back and 

 forth. Until the cause of the trouble is removed, this din is continued^ 



