12 T HE! A U-D(U* BON? eBir Gans aes 
may seem quite attentive to his mate, he does not assist her in the home 
building. 
In its “original western hame the Brewer’s Blackbird nested com- 
monly in bushes and small trees, but as an immigrant it nests on the 
ground, rarely elsewhere.” In all locations the nest of the Brewer’s Black- 
bird is usually low but sometimes as high up as thirty feet in trees or 
bushes. It is constructed with a rough, coarse foundation of twigs, plant 
stalks, bark and rootlets mixed and held together with manure or mud, 
and lined with finer, similar materials with the addition of horse- or cow- 
hair. The eggs are dull white or grayish or greenish, so thickly marked 
with brown, lavender, and blackish that the ground color is obscured. 
Principal nesting places are in unsettled districts, in the trees or around 
the edges of marshes on the outskirts of colonies of red-wings or yellow- 
heads. Often, however, the nest is built in the trees near farmhouses. 
The Brewer’s Blackbird is quite gregarious, but breeds in colonies of from 
five to ten families—much smaller groups than those of red-wings or 
yellow-heads. Later it joins other blackbirds in large congregations. 
Nesting colonies of this species are now to be found in localities where 
twenty-five years ago it was unknown. As it is an aggressive and meadow- 
loving bird, it is feared that in some areas “it may displace the Bobolink, 
which selects similar home sites.” It returns in spring earlier than 
the Bobolink, and so is on the ground before it. 
Doubtless these blackbirds eat freely of cherries and sometimes of 
newly-sown wheat, but will leave either one to follow plow or harrow for 
grubs and insects. They are very helpful in an orchard infested with 
cankerworms, as they work from tree to tree cleaning out the insects as 
they go. While they might prove a menace to oats or wheat if they were 
very abundant, they are eaters of grain chiefly in the winter. From the 
time of sowing to the end of harvest less than 24% of their food consists 
of grain. 
The Brewer’s Blackbird is still not common in the Chicago area, but 
it is one of the western birds that is extending its range eastward. It 
breeds from central British Columbia and central Manitoba to Lower 
California, New Mexico, and western Texas, and from the Pacific to 
north-western Minnesota, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois. 
IRREGULAR MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY ICTERIDAE 
The Bobolink, the Cowbird, and the Meadowlark stand apart from other 
members of the family Icteridae, as they are neither Grackles, Blackbirds, 
nor Orioles. 
1. Bobolink: The Bobolink is a distinctive bird. There are none like 
him, none. Birds differ greatly one from another in coloration, form, fiight, 
and in other particulars, yet the members of any one family generally have 
a readily recognizable resemblance. A sparrow is always a sparrow as a 
blackbird is always.a blackbird. But the Bobolink stands apart. 
Perhaps the Bobolink more nearly resembles the Longspurs in appear- 
ance than he does the members of his own family. His black underparts 
