644 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
the Carlsbad section of the Pecos Valley are the only parts of the State where Mr. 
Ligon thinks they remain regularly throughout the winter. 
In the spring migration, most of the flocks pass through the State in April; a 
specimen was taken at Silver City, April 12, 1914 (Kellogg). Some exceptionally 
early birds were seen during February of 1876 at Socorro (McCauley); and February 
16, 1901, at Rincon (Barber).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —A large thick-walled basket made of dried weeds and marsh grasses woven 
together, lined with finer grasses, and hung from growing reeds or cat-tails in marshes 
well above the water. Eggs: Usually 4, from grayish white to greenish white, 
profusely blotched and speckled over the entire surface "with browns and neutral 
tints, generally heaviest about the larger end; occasionally with a few fine hair-like 
markings. 
Food. —About a third animal matter and two-thirds vegetable. Of the animal 
matter, nearly a third is composed of insects harmful to vegetation, including the 
army worm, alfalfa weevil, and grasshoppers. The vegetable food is made up of 
grain and weed seed; grain, including oats, corn, and wheat, partly waste, amounting 
to more than one-third of all the food. The Yellow-head does not attack fruit or 
garden produce, feeding principally upon insects, grain, and weed seed, doing much 
good by eating noxious insects and troublesome weeds, but, when too abundant, 
becoming a menace to grain. 
General Habits. —On his breeding grounds in the tule marshes or 
marsh-bordered lakes, the handsome yellow-headed and yellow-vested 
Blackbird is a striking figure, centering the attention upon himself 
while his duller mate passes by with little notice, as Nature wisely 
provides, for the safety of the family. 
While they generally frequent the same marshes as the Red-wings, 
Mr. Ridgway says, the two usually congregate in colonies in separate 
portions of the marsh (1877, p. 502). 
At Lake Burford and the small adjoining lakes where in the summer 
of 1918 Doctor Wetmore found the birds assembled, he says, “ Their 
colonies were always noisy; strange cat-calls, drawn out wailing notes, 
and chattering protests came to my ears constantly in the rushes 
below camp . . . The ordinary song . . . was subject to much 
variation but usually resembled the syllables klee khe klee ko-kow-w-w , 
the last low and much drawn out. The ordinary call-note of the 
males was a liquid cluck, somewhat unlike the call of any other Black¬ 
bird, while the call of the female was more Red-wing like” (1920a, p. 
403). 
In a nesting colony of some two hundred pairs, the adult males 
were in large part settled on their breeding grounds on Doctor Wetmore’s 
arrival, May 23, though many were not yet mated. “Each selected a 
stand in the tides at the border of the lake and unless away feeding 
was certain to be found in the immediate vicinity constantly from that 
time on. At this season the male “seems fully conscious of his hand¬ 
some colorings and in his displays makes every effort to attract atten¬ 
tion. In the most common display the male started towards the female 
