98 
SINGING BIRDS. 
incubation, but few of the other sex apjrear associated with 
them ; and as among the Bobolinks, sometimes two or three of 
the males may be seen in chase of an individual of the other 
sex, but without making any contest or show of jealous feud 
with each other, as a concubinage rather than any regular 
mating seems to prevail among the species. 
Assembled again in their native marshes, the male perched, 
upon the summit of some bush surrounded by water, in com- 
pany with his mates, now sings out, at short intervals, his 
guttural kong-quer-ree, sharply calls t'tshiali, or when disturbed, 
plaintively utters 'ttsliay ; to which his companions, not insen- 
sible to these odd attentions, now and then return a gratulatory 
cackle or reiterated chirp, like that of the native Meadow 
Lark. As a pleasant and novel, though not unusual, accompa- 
niment, perhaps the great bull-frog elevates his green head 
and brassy eyes from the stagnant pool, and calls out in a loud 
and echoing bellow, ’w'7'roo, ’warivo, 'worrbrroo, 'bodroo, which 
is again answered, or, as it were, merely varied by the creaking 
or cackling voice of his feathered neighbors. This curious 
concert, uttered as it were from the still and sable waters of 
the Styx, is at once both ludicrous and solemn. 
About the end of April or early in May, in the middle and 
northern parts of the Union, the Red-Winged Blackbirds com- 
mence constructing their nests. The situation made choice of 
is generally in some marsh, swamp, or wet meadow, abounding 
with alder {Ahius) or button-bushes ( Cephalanthus) ; in these, 
commonly at the height of five to seven feet from the ground, 
or sometimes in a detached bush or tussock of rank grass in 
the meadow, the nest is formed. Outwardly it is composed of 
a considerable quantity of the long dry leaves of sedge-grass 
( Carex ) , or other kinds collected in wet situations, and occa- 
sionally the slender leaves of the flag (//is) carried round all 
the adjoining twigs of the bush by way of support or suspen- 
sion, and sometimes blended with strips of the lint of the 
swamp Asckpias, or silk-weed (Asclepias incarnata). The 
whole of this exterior structure is also twisted in and out, and 
carried in loops from one side of the nest to the other, pretty 
