open fields of high grass or grain. On 

 account of their nesting habits their 

 name is most appropriate. As the nests 

 are usually placed in tufts of tall grass, 

 they are nearly always very hard to lo- 

 cate. The sets of eggs of these interest- 

 ing birds vary from four to six. 



The Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius 

 phoeniceus) breed from the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico northward into the British Posses- 

 sions. Their nests are built in tussocks 

 of grass, reeds, or low bushes in or near 

 a swamp or marsh. They are sometimes 

 built in bushes which grow in the water 

 and in a few instances they are located 

 in trees or on the ground. The materials 

 used in the construction of the nests are 

 quite variable, but usually coarse grasses, 

 strips of sedges or rushes, or stalks of 

 weeds are used. They are lined with 

 hair or fine grasses. The number of 

 eggs in the sets vary from three to five. 



The Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) 

 breed throughout the United States east 

 of the Great Plains from the Gulf of 

 Mexico northward into the British Pos- 

 sessions. Their nests are built usually 

 in the crotches of trees or high shrubs, 

 from five to forty feet above the ground. 

 They are even built, at times, in vines 

 growing on the sides of houses. The 

 nests consist of rudely though strongly 

 interwoven rootlets, twigs, vegetable fi- 

 bers, and quite often yarn, strings, wool, 



rags and pieces of paper. The eggs in 

 the sets vary from three to six. 



The Prairie Horned Larks (Otoe oris 

 alpestris praticola) breed in the upper 

 Mississippi Valley and eastward through 

 New York to western Massachusetts and 

 Long Island. The nests of this prairie 

 loving species are built on the ground in 

 shallow depressions usually in dry mead- 

 ows and corn-fields. The nests are quite 

 compactly constructed of dry grasses 

 and the leaves of corn. They are lined 

 with animal hairs, feathers and some- 

 times vegetable down. Two or three 

 broods are reared in a season and there 

 are three or four eggs in the sets. 



The Wood Pewees (C onto pus virens) 

 breed throughout eastern North America 

 from Florida to Newfoundland and 

 westward to the eastern edge of the 

 Great Plains. Their nests are usually 

 saddled on a limb of a tree from fifteen 

 to fifty feet above the ground. They are 

 sometimes built in the fork of a branch. 

 They are constructed with fine grasses, 

 moss, rootlets and strips of bark. The 

 outside of the wall is covered with a 

 copious coating of lichens which are held 

 in place by webs. The walls are thick, but 

 the floors are very thin, and sometimes 

 the branches upon which the nests are 

 saddled form a portion of the floor of the 

 nest. The sets of the beautiful eggs of 

 this Pewee number from three to four. 



THE GREEDY GULL OF LOCH LOMOND 



The sky w^as clear and the lake smooth 

 as glass, on a lovely day in July as a 

 boat filled with tourists passed Ben Lo- 

 mond whose tall head overlooks the other 

 hills in a lordly way as if conscious of 

 the beauty he was adding to the lake 

 scenery. 



A flock of gulls had been following 

 the boat for some time. The children 

 aboard clamored for permission to feed 

 the birds, so a bag of bread crusts was 

 secured from the cook and a merry play 

 ensued. 



The leader of the flock was the largest 

 of the gulls and he disdained to swoop 

 down to the water to catch the bits of 



bread when they were thrown upon it as 

 the rest of the gulls w^ere happy to do, 

 for he was an adept at catching them in 

 the air. Seeing his skill, a young man 

 offered to throw the bread for the chil- 

 dren to see if the leader would not se- 

 cure every bite, if well thrown. Sure 

 enough, five times out of every six "Sir 

 Greedy Gull" secured the crust. If one 

 chanced to fall to the water, he left it 

 for the others to dive for, while he flew 

 on, ready for the next bite which seemed 

 to fly right into his bill. 



Great was the amusement of the chil- 

 dren, but, at last, as the bag of scraps 

 was emptied, they began to fear that the 



