OF NEW ENGLAND. 249 
There is much yet to be studied in the habits of these birds, 
and much that requires the attention of a specialist. Even the 
ornithologist who devotes his time to his proper pursuit is too 
much occupied in May and June to make the necessary obser- 
vations. Few monographs in Natural History could be more 
interesting than one of the Cow-birds. 
IV. AGELAUS 
. (A) PHe@niceus. Red-winged Blackbird. Swamp Blackbird. 
Marsh Blackbird. ‘* Red-wing.” 
“(A very common summer-resident throughout Massachu- 
setts.) 
(a).. g, about nine inches long, lustrous black; shoulders, 
scarlet, bordered by a color varying from brownish yellow to 
whitish. 9, about 74 inches long. Back, etc., dark brown 
or blackish, with lighter edgings, median and superciliary lines. 
Beneath, white or whitish, sharply and thickly dark-streaked 
(except on the throat). 
(0). The nest is built in swamps, and on meadows or 
marshes, either on the ground, when it is generally placed upon 
a tussock, or in a bush, the alder being frequently chosen for 
this purpose. Says Mr. Maynard: ‘I have found the nests 
on an island in the marshes of Essex River, placed on trees 
twenty feet from the ground! In one case, where the nest was 
placed on a slender sapling fourteen feet high, that swayed 
with the slightest breeze, the nest was constructed after the 
manner of our Baltimore Orioles, prettily woven of the bleached 
sea-weed called eel-grass. So well constructed was this nest, 
and so much at variance with the usual style, that had it not 
been for the female sitting on it, I should have taken it for a 
nest of J. Baltimore. It was six inches deep.” The nest of 
the Red-winged Blackbird is generally constructed of dry grass- 
es or partly hairs (— occasionally also of roots), which are 
firmly attached to any neighboring branches or stalks, or which 
form a very neat hollow in the grass. In Eastern Massachu- 
setts it is finished soon after the middle of May. The eggs of 
each set are four or five, average 1:00 X ‘75 of an inch, and 
