A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 625 
following the cows as they feed and picking up the insects 
that are dislodged from the turf. 
We should have but little fault to find with them except 
for their habit of laying their eggs in the nest of other birds, 
instead of building for themselves and rearing their own young. 
In fact, they make so much trouble in the families of birds of 
beauty and great value that we should be glad if the whole 
species could be exterminated. 
Red- winged Blackbird: Agelaius phoeniceus 
Length: Very variable; 8.25-9.85 inches. 
Male. Rich blue-black; scarlet shoulders, edged with yellow. 
Female. Finely speckled with rusty black, brown, and orange. Shoul- 
ders obscurely orange-red. 
S' ong: A rich, juicy note — “ Oucher-la-ree-e ! ” 
Season: Late March to October. Sometimes winters. 
Breeds: Through summer range. 
Nest: A bulky pocket hung between reeds or stems of alders, etc.; 
made of rush blades and grass, and lined with finer grasses. 
Eggs: 4-6, light blue, fancifully marked with lines, dots, and patches 
of black and lilac. 
Range: North America in general, from Great Slave Lake south to 
Costa Rica. 
The Redwinged, or Swamp, Blackbird is found all over the 
United States and the region immediately to the north. While 
common in most of its range, its distribution is more or less 
local, mainly on account of its partiality for swamps. Its nest 
is built near standing water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. 
Owing to this peculiarity the bird may be absent from large 
tracts of country which afford no swamps or marshes suitable 
for nesting. It usually breeds in large colonies, though single 
families, consisting of a male with several wives, may some- 
times be found in a small slough, where each of the females 
builds her nest and rears her own little brood, while her lieere 
lord displays his brilliant colors and struts in the sunshine. In 
the Upper Mississippi Valley it finds the conditions most favor- 
able for the countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the nu- 
merous shallow lakes form nesting sites for thousands of Red- 
wings ; and there are bred the immense flocks which sometimes 
do so much damage to the grain fields of the' west. After the 
breeding season is over, the birds collect in flocks to migrate, 
and remain thus associated throughout the winter. 
