. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 34 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GEACKLES. species. In many places, especially on the borders of shallow lakes, thousands of acres of rushes and reeds of various kinds afiford nesting sites for redwings, yellowheads, and marsh wrens, while myriads of more aquatic species swim in the waters below and nest amid the broken herbage. It is from such breeding grounds that the vast flocks are recruited that make such havoc upon fields of grain and call forth the maledictions of the unfortunate farmer. East of the Appa- lachian Range the conditions are diff
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 34 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GEACKLES. species. In many places, especially on the borders of shallow lakes, thousands of acres of rushes and reeds of various kinds afiford nesting sites for redwings, yellowheads, and marsh wrens, while myriads of more aquatic species swim in the waters below and nest amid the broken herbage. It is from such breeding grounds that the vast flocks are recruited that make such havoc upon fields of grain and call forth the maledictions of the unfortunate farmer. East of the Appa- lachian Range the conditions are different. Marshes on the shores of lakes, rivers, and estuaries are here the only sites available for breed- ing purposes, and as these are more restricted in nmnber and area than the western breeding grounds the species is much less abundant than in the Fig. 4.—Red-winged blackbird. Like their associates, the marsh wrens, and their neighbors, the bank swallows, the, redwings are eminently gregarious, living in flocks for the greater part of the time and breeding in communities which vary in size according to the area of the swamp they occupy. Some- timoH thesecolonicw are n>duced to a single family, which in such cases usually consists of one male bird with several females and their nests; for this species practices polygamy, a habit noted in the case of only 11 few species of song birds. During th(> winter the redwings are in the South, but may occasion- ally be found as far north as latitude 40°, and stragglers may occur at any point within their summer range. (A young male was shot by the writer in central Iowa in January, ISTlt, and one bird whose stomach. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Beal, F. E. L. (Foster Ellenborough Lascelles), 1840-1916. s. l. , s. n.
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