122 
THE NATURALIST’S GUIDE. 
Bunting.” Common summer resident. Arrives from 
April 6th to 19th; leaves by the last week in October. 
Deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds, — the only 
example of polygamy among undomesticated birds in 
North America. Gregarious throughout the year, but 
more so in autumn. Often seen around cows in pursuit 
of insects, sometimes alighting u|)on them ; from this 
habit it derives its popular (Cow-Bunting) and specific 
(pecoris) names. 
100. Agelaeus Phoeniceus, Vieill. — Red-winged 
Blackbird^ “Swamp Blackbird.” Common summer resident. 
Arrives from February 25th to March 10th; leaves by the 
last of October. Nests in the marshes, generally on a tus- 
sock; sometimes in low bushes. I have found the nests 
on an island in the marshes of Essex Biver, 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 con- 
structed after the manner of our Baltimore Orioles, pret- 
tily woven of the bleached sea-weed called eel-grass. So 
well constructed was this nest, and so much at variance 
wfith the usual style, that had it not been for the female 
sitting on it, I should have taken it for a nest of /. Balti- 
more, It was six inches deep. 
101. Xanthocephalns icterocephalus, Baird. — 
Yellow-headed Blackbird, A single specimen was procured 
by my young friend, Frank Sanger, at Watertown, about 
the 15th of October, 1869. The wings, tail, and one foot 
of this specimen are now in my possession. Through the 
kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, I have been enabled to com- 
pare them with specimens of the same species in the Mu- 
seum of Comparative Zoology, thereby identifying them. 
This bird was in immature plumage, evidently the young- 
of-the-year. It was shot in an orchard. The occurrence 
of this specimen in this section is singular, as its usual 
