NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



341 



bushes near the ground, often in a tussock of grass, sometimes on the ground, and 

 once in a while at a considerable elevation in a tree. The materials are usually strips 

 of rushes or sedges, lined with finer grass and sometimes with a few horse hairs. 

 It is rather bulky, and not at all artistic. This bird nests in communities, and one 

 is quite as likely to find several nests near each other as a single one, in a piece of 



498. Red-winged Blackbird (From Brehm). 



swamp. Nests and eggs found in Texas are smaller than the average of those found 

 in the more northern States. The eggs are light blue, marbled, lined, blotched and 

 clouded with markings of light and dark purple and black, almost entirely about 

 the larger end, but vary considerably in this respect; they are usually four, rarely 

 five in. number, and average l.OOx.75. Mr. I. B. Hess, of Philo, 111., makes note of an 

 unusual Red-wing's nest in "The Osprey"* for September, 1897. It is as follows: 

 "On May 25 of last season, I climbed to the top of a wild cherry tree for what I sup- 

 posed to be a nest of the Kingbird. I was greatly surprised to find it a Red-winged 

 Blackbird's nest. It was firmly fastened to a branch twenty-one feet from the 

 ground. In construction it differed very materially from the usual Red-wing style, 

 being composed of strings, grasses and feathers, much after the Tyrannus tyrannua 

 mode of architecture. The tree stands within fifteen feet of a large farm residence, 

 and is fully half a mile from open water. The site Is one where I should never have 

 looked for a nest of Agelaius pjiwniceus." 



* The Osprey, an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Ornithology. Edited by Walter A, 

 Johnson, associated with Dr. Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C, Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 13. Pub- 

 lished by the Osprey Company, Galesburg, 111. Official Organ of the Cooper Ornlthologica'. 

 Club of the Pacific Coast. 



