98 
The Red-winged Blackbird 
flying about takes place. Do not look for a nest just now, how- 
ever The marsh must grow a little while longer and the new 
leaves of the rushes get strong and tall enough to support the nest 
before the cradle can be built. 
Near the upper boundary of New York City lies Van Cortlandt 
Park. Here is a pond of perhaps five acres on which many boats 
pass to and fro on pleasant afternoons. One day last spring two 
small boys wanted to show me how they could row a boat, and so 
took me to ride about this pond. Near the upper end is a little 
marsh with flags and rushes covering an area not 
New^York City over a hundred feet across. When near this I 
noticed a Red-winged Blackbird sitting on a bush 
growing near shore. Thinking that a male Red-wing at that sea- 
son certainly meant that a female was near, and if there was a 
female present there must be a nest close by, we pushed the boat 
in among the rushes a short distance and waited. In about five 
minutes the lady Red-wing appeared. She came rapidly flying 
from the fields and quickly lighted among the rushes not thirty feet 
from us. In a little while she flew away. The boys of course were 
anxious to search further. With much labor the boat was pushed 
deep into the marsh and there, supported by upright stalks of the 
rushes, we found the Red-wing’s nest. With great care we came 
close and peeped into it. Four little naked Blackbirds, with heads 
lifted on stringy necks, waved unsteadily as with wide-open mouths 
they begged pitifully for worms. Heretofore when they had de- 
tected a sound or movement at the nest it had been a parent with 
food, and they were now unable to distinguish between the dis- 
turbance we produced in parting the rushes and the sounds that 
the mother made when she fluttered near. 
The nest in which these remarkably unattractive babies lay 
was very deep, and a moment’s thought will show that the parent 
birds were very wise in building it this way. Sometimes the wind 
blows strongly, and when it does the rushes bend away over to one 
side. If the nest was not deep the baby birds surely would tumble 
out, which would mean more sorrow in the marsh. 
The eggs from which the little Blackbirds come are about an 
inch in length and colored in a most peculiar manner. They have 
streaks and spots and blotches scratched about over them and look 
much as if the mother had brought ink home on 
k^Nest t ^ e her ^ eet an< ^ t ^ ien tiaec * to turn the e &g s over with- 
out first washing her toes. Usually it takes only 
about twelve days for the eggs to hatch after the mother begins 
to sit on them. Her body is very warm. In fact while she sits 
