RED CONSPICUOUS IN PLUMAGE 471 



in the San Diegan district ; and the Northwestern, found 

 in the northern counties. The habits of the species are 

 identical, for all are marsh-loving birds, building their 

 nests among the rushes or bushes along the edge of the 

 water. All the summer, fall, and winter the San Diego 

 Red-wings frolic and feed in large flocks, wandering over 

 the farm lands of the valleys and piping their gay " kon- 

 karee " from all the fruit trees. At this time their food 

 consists of insects that are injurious to fruit trees and 

 the farmers' crops, for they glean alike in the orchard and 

 behind the plough, picking up not only adult insects, but 

 the larvae and eggs. Grains of all sorts and seeds are 

 also part of their diet, yet the small harm they do is 

 greatly overbalanced by the good they accomplish. When 

 nesting time comes they are off to the marshes and 

 sloughs. Here they nest in large colonies, sometimes 

 numbering hundreds, the nests so close together that the 

 young birds can almost hop from one to the next. After 

 the manner of the yellow-heads, the male Red-wings 

 take small share in nest building or brooding. In the 

 East this bird is not infrequently a victim of the para- 

 sitic cowbird egg, and when this happens the brood is 

 abandoned or a second nest is constructed "on top of the 

 old one. Occasionally these double-decker affairs are a 

 foot high with one half-incubated brood walled securely 

 into the lower part and a second reared above it. Nests 

 built on the edges of the marsh or near the open water 

 are always much deeper and more securely fastened to 

 the rushes than those placed in more sheltered locations, 

 as if the wise little architects knew the greater strength 



