THE PERCHING Birps. 131 
sure to be found; and when there are warm, sunny 
days, though it is midwinter, they seek out their 
spring-tide haunts and the males sing as merrily as 
in April. 
The Western varieties are pretty much the same. 
Dr. Coues mentions the “ Tricolors flocking in vast 
numbers.” These appear to be a much tamer bird 
than our Eastern form, as he speaks of them as throng- 
ing the streets of a town, which is not a habit of our 
bird, for I never yet saw a Jersey village so small and 
so sleepy that red-wings would venture into its single 
street to forage. In this they are unlike the grakles, 
(to be considered), for they will come into large towns 
and even nest in trees a little off much-travelled 
streets. 
At first glance it would not appear that red-winged 
blackbirds and meadow-larks had anything in com- 
mon, and yet they are really much alike in some 
respects; so much so that at one time of the year 
they are closely associated. They breed in the same 
meadows, but build very different nests; the black- 
bird’s being in tufts of coarse grass or tangled vines 
off the ground, while the meadow-lark builds on or 
in the ground, depending upon the long grass to 
conceal it; but while there are eggs or young to 
look after the two birds are much together and sing 
constantly, the lark usually climbing to the top of a 
tree rather than contenting itself with a fence-post, 
and there whistling clearly “J see you—you can't see 
me,” and it takes sharp eyes to make him out, as the 
bird seems to study a position that makes him one 
with the leaves. 
