Wintering of the Red-winged Blackbird near Cambridge, Mass.- On 
the 20th of December, 1889, while passing along the edge of a small 
swamp grown up with cat-tails, low bushes, birches, and maples, not far 
from Fresh Pond, I heard repeatedly the note of a Blackbird. I was un- 
able to follow up the sound owing to the thinness of the ice with which 
the swamp was coated, and failed to see the bird, although it answeied 
my ‘squeaking’ several times. January 12, 1890, I visited the same swamp 
in company with Mr. Frank Bolles. and, finding the ice stiong enough to 
bear, went towards some low bushes where I had heard the bird upon the 
previous date, and soon started a male Red-winged Blackbird in clear 
bright plumage. After alighting for a few moments in a small birch not 
fortv yards away, the bird flew off across the swamp. 
My friend Mr. Walter Faxon informs me that he found a Red-winged 
Blackbird in the same swamp on January 6, and 27, and on February 1, 
and 23, 1890, which was doubtless the same bird. The presence of this 
bird through January, a month which may be regarded as a test month 
for birds which are spending the winter with us, and on into Februaiy 
until within a few days of the arrival of the spring migrants, is thus estab- 
lished, and affords, I believe, the first record of the wintering of the Red- 
winged Blackbird in Massachusetts.— Henry M. Spelman, Cambridge, 
Mass. VII. July, 1890, P, SSrf' 2 S'?. 
