THE BUSTY BLACKBIED. 491 



motion, chasing each other or flying from perch to perch, singing merrily most 

 of the time." 



In the more southern portions of its breeding range, in Herkimer Comity, 

 New York, nidification commences as early as the last week in April. Dr. 

 William L. Ralph found a nest containing four fresh eggs on May 7, 1886, but 

 it usually commences laying here about the middle of this month, and if the 

 first set of eggs is taken, a second one may be looked for about two weeks later. 

 With a set of five eggs in the Ralph collection, taken on May 27, 1892, in 

 which incubation had slightly advanced, the following remarks are entered on 

 the data blank belonging to it: "When I reached the nest I found the female 

 bird dallying with two males, fluttering her wings, raising her tail above her 

 back, and calling to them. All three finally flew to the nest and made a great 

 deal of noise in the clump of trees in which it was situated and on the mossy 

 ground beneath. At first the female appeared to care more for the attentions of 

 the males than she did for her nest, but as soon as I began taking the eggs she 

 and one of the males made a great fuss and attempted to scare me away. I 

 think the other male was one of a pair to which a deserted nest belonged, found 

 May 12, containing two cold, wet eggs; the female had probably been killed." 



Through the kindness of Dr. Ralph I had an opportunity of observing a pair 

 of these birds, and also their nest and eggs, in the spring of 1893, the only ones 

 nesting in that vicinity. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam found it breeding on the north branch of Moose 

 River, near Big Moose Lake, New York, on June 15, 1883, and presented me 

 a handsome set of four eggs taken by him there. The nest was placed in a 

 winterberry or black elder bush {Ilex verticillata), 3 feet from the ground, near 

 the edge of a stream. 



Mr. W. Gr. Winton took a nest and eggs near the Stewiacke River, Nova 

 Scotia, in 1860, and these eggs are now in the United States National Museum 

 collection. 



Mr. W. L. Bishop, of Kentville, Nova Scotia, informs me that he found the 

 Rusty Blackbird breeding- there as early as May 5, and that he thinks only one 

 brood is raised in a season. 



Messrs. E. W. Nelson and L. M. Turner both report it common on the 

 Yukon River, Alaska, and several eggs taken near Fort Yukon are now in 

 the collection here. The latter naturalist also took young birds near Fort 

 Chimo, Ungava, on July 10, 1884. Here they frequented swampy tracts in 

 which a few isolated spruce and larch trees grew. 



Prof. Winfred A. Stearns says that in Labrador "the Rusty Blackbird had a 

 summer breeding range all along the coast line, at least as far north as L'Anse 

 au Loupe, at which place it was a summer resident. Mr. Fred. Davis informs 

 me that the bird occasionally built its nest in a wood pile." 1 



Mr. R. MacFarlane found it breeding on the Anderson River, British North 

 America; Mr. James Lockhart, on the Yukon, near the mouth of the Porcupine 



1 Bird Life in Labrador, 1890, p. 53. 



