THE BED- WINGED BLACKBIRD. 451 



again when it is in the millc, and in the rice plantations in the South — it likewise 

 does a great deal of good, and, excepting sections where it congregates in 

 large numbers, it is safe to assert that the good done by it throughout the year 

 fai- overbalances the harm. The young are fed almost exclusively on insects, 

 and enormous numbers are required to feed them. 



The nesting season varies somewhat in different sections of its range. In 

 same parts of the South full sets of eggs have been found as early as the first 

 week in April, while in others nidification begins fully a month later. In the 

 northern half of the United States it is at its height from May 15 to June 15, and 

 occasionally fresh eggs are found more than a month later, these probably being 

 second broods. At Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, full sets have been 

 taken on June 7 by Messrs. Robert Kennicott and James Lockhart. In the 

 West I found the Red-winged Blackbird common throughout Washington, 

 Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, and it breeds more or less abundantly 

 in all suitable localities throughout this region. 



Mr. H. P. Lawrence observed large flocks of Blackbirds, consisting of this 

 species, the Bicolored, and Brewer's Blackbirds, near the Columbia River, below 

 Vancouver, Washington, but they appear to become rarer near the coast. At 

 Fort Walla Walla, Washington, a little colony nested in a swampy thicket close 

 to the Post, at an unusually early date, April 20, 1881, and the majority of the 

 nests contained full sets of eggs at that time, while at Camp Harney, Oregon, 

 about 250 miles farther south, nidification began about a month later. 



The nests resemble those of the preceding species in general construction, 

 but average a trifle smaller. They are usually placed in bunches of reeds, rushes, 

 or small bushes, from a few inches to several feet above the ground, and occa- 

 sionally in a tussock of rank grass directly on the ground, mostly in swampy 

 places close to water, and rarely any great distance away. Now and then 

 a nest may be found placed in the forks of willow, elder, and alder bushes, 

 from 10 to 15 feet from the ground. The nest is always securely attached to 

 several of last year's reed and grass stems or to small branches of bushes; the 

 materials composing it vary considerably in bulk, they are used in a wet state, 

 and consist of different kinds of coarse marsh grass, eel grass, and strips of rotten 

 willow and sagebrush bark, as well as of finer grasses. They are usually liaed 

 with fine grass tops, and occasionally with horsehair. 



An average nest measures from 4J to 5 inches in outer diameter, and from 

 3 J to 6 inches in depth; the inner cup is from 2 J to 3 inches in diameter, and 

 about the same in depth; it takes about a week to complete a nest and for it to 

 become sufficiently dry to be used. Mr. W. E. Grover found the Red-winged 

 Blackbirds breeding in considerable numbers on Galveston Island, Texas, the 

 nests being generally placed in salt cedars or in Cherokee rosebushes. One of 

 the nests sent by him to the United States National Museum collection had quite 

 a quantity of snake exuviae incorporated in its walls, a rather unusual building 

 material for this species. 



