208 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



Breeding specimens have been examined from Leighton, At- 

 talla, Greensboro, and Autaugaville ; and wintering individuals 

 from Uniontown and Barachias. Avery reports the species 

 abundant in winter at Greensboro, and Brown speaks of see- 

 ing immense flocks at Coosada at that season. Nesting be- 

 gins about the first of May ; eggs were found at Autaugaville, 

 May 11. 



General habits. — During the breeding season, these black- 

 birds are largely restricted to marshes or low, boggy fields, 

 but in winter they congregate in immense flocks, roving about 

 the country in search of food and often flying long distances 

 to gather into a common roost at night. For this purpose 

 they select a reed-grown marsh, and spend the night well con- 

 cealed in the thick reeds. During the winter and early spring 

 the sexes keep for the most part in flocks by themselves, and in 

 the spring migration the males precede the females by two 

 weeks or more. The gregarious habit prevails to some extent 

 in the breeding season and the species is more or less polyga- 

 mous, a single male often mating with 2 or 3 females. 



The alarm note of the red-wing is a sharp chuck; the song 

 is liquid and resonant, and though not ranking high as a 

 musical production is nevertheless pleasing. 



The nests are basketlike structures woven of reeds or 

 grasses placed in bushes or reeds, usually 2 or 3 above the 

 ground, but occasionally as high as 10 feet. The eggs are 

 usually 3 or 4 in number, curiously scrawled and blotched 

 with birown or black. 



Food habits. — The food of the red-winged blackbird has 

 been studied by Prof. Beal, of the Biological Survey, from 

 examination of more than a thousand stomachs. The food 

 was found to consist of 26.6 per cent animal matter, chiefly 

 insects, and 73.4 per cent vegetable. The insects eaten are 

 principally beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, with a few 

 wasps, ants, flies, bugs, and dragonflies. The vegetable food 

 consists mainly of grain and seeds of grasses and weeds. 

 "Grain collectively amounts to 13.9 per cent of the food of 

 the year, and its distribution * * * leads to the conclusion 

 that at least half of it is waste." Oats, corn, and wheat are 

 the grains usually eaten, and where rice is grown that crop 



