East Lexington, Mass.
1899
May 6
(No 2)
was looking "with all my eyes". The Sweet Gale, already
in half leaf, gave some shelter, of course, but even had
it been leafless the character of the nests was such that
they might have been easily overlooked at a distance of
a few yards.
[margin]Nesting of
Pied-billed Greebe[/margin]
  Later we found a third nest with seven eggs, in a more
open place among scanty, leafless Button Bushes. This nest
was similar in every way to the other two. Very [?]r it
was a partly finished nest which the boys considered
a "bluff nest". We saw many of these "bluff nests" elsewhere.
They were evidently the work of the Greebes but whether
built to draw attention away from the nest nests or
merely structures which had been abandoned because the
sites proved for some reason unsatisfactory I was
unable to determine. The eggs in this last nest were
fresh for the sank when placed in the water but the
set of eight which I took were incubated to judge by
the way they behaved when subjected to the test just
mentioned.
  We did not catch sight of a single Greebe the whole
forenoon but they were very noisy at times. Almost
invariably after we had lest a nest the birds set up
a loud outcry near it in tones, as it seemed to me,
of triumph over our supposed inability to deceive it.
  We found a Red-wings's nest with one egg (an early date)
a Bronzed Grackle's with three eggs (nest in Button Bush only
a foot above the water) and a Bluebirds (in a dead apple
tree) with five eggs.
[margin]Red-wing's nest
Grackle's "
Bluebird's "[/margin]
  We heard several Carolina Rails, a "Big Grunter", &
a Yellow-throated Vireo besides many common birds
[margin]The Big Grunter
heard.[/margin]
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