93 



such parts as add materially to this account will be selected 

 from other authors. 



''About the end of April or early in May, in the middle and 

 northern parts of the Union, the Red-winged Blackbirds 

 commence constructing their nests. The situation made 

 choice of is generally in some marsh, swamp, or wet meadow, 

 abounding with alder (Alnus) or button-bushes (Cephalanthus) ; 

 in these, commonly at the height of five to seven feet from 

 the ground, or sometimes in a detached bush or tussock of 

 rank grass in the meadow, the nest is formed. Outwardly it 

 is composed of a considerable quantity of the long, dry leaves 

 of sedge-grass (Carex), or other kinds, collected in wet situa- 

 tions, and occasionally the slender leaves of the flag (Iris) 

 carried round all the adjoining twigs of the bush by way of 

 support or suspension, and sometimes blended with strips of 

 the lint of the swamp Asclepias, or silkweed {Asclepias in- 

 carnata). The whole of this exterior structure is also twisted 

 in and out, and carried in loops from one side of the nest to the 

 other, pretty much in the manner of the Orioles, but made of 

 less flexible and handsome materials. The large interstices 

 that remain, as well as the bottom, are then filled in with rotten 

 wood, marsh-grass roots, fibrous peat, or mud, so as to form, 

 when dry, a stout and substantial, though concealed shell, 

 the whole very well lined with fine, dry stalks of grass or with 

 slender rushes (Scirpi). When the nest is in a tussock, it is 

 also tied to the adjoining stalks of herbage; but when on the 

 ground this precaution of fixity is laid aside. . . . They raise 

 two broods commonly in the season. . . . When the young 

 are taken or destroyed, the pair continue restless and dejected 

 for several days; but from force of their gregarious habit 

 they again commence building, usually soon after, in the same 

 meadow or swamp with their neighbors." 



Wilson's account, while quite full, contains no information 

 not conveyed by Nuttall. Samuels (1887), Stearns (1881), 

 Goss (1883), and Capen (1886) each give a more or less 

 extended account of the nesting habits, but add nothing to 

 Nuttall's description. Capen does not record the first set of 

 eggs until the last of May. Merrill (1888) found half-grown 



